Alternative
by Anonywuff
Summary: Be careful what you wish for. You never know who might be listening.
1. The Start Of Trouble

A/N ; Welcome to "Alternative"! Updates will be every Saturday unless otherwise stated.

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Chapter One: The Start Of Trouble

My life was... well, to put it simply, it sucked. Now, before anyone starts assuming things, I want to make it very clear that this is not, under any circumstances, some stupid sob story. I'm not going to go on and on about how hard my life was or how much I hated things because guess what? It honestly doesn't matter. All the details, no matter how small or insignificant, bad or good, aren't important. No, what is important, what is the problem, is what ripped that life away from me. It may not have been the best life, it was far from perfect, but it was **mine**. **My **family, **my **friends, **my **job! Everything about it, every single major or minor thing, was **mine**. I'm not going to lie, there have been many, many times, where I've wished things were different, or that I could just disappear, sometimes I even wished I had never been born or that I could trade my life for another persons. Honestly though, who hasn't thought of or wished for something like that at least once? I wouldn't have given up my life for anything... I worked too hard for too long to get where I was and I still had so much left to do... so much I wanted to...

Just so many things that now, I would never get the chance to do.

I remember the day it happened... it was fall, the fourteenth of October...

xxXxx

Too early. Waaaaay too fucking early to be awake. "Hoooooot..." Rolling over onto my back, I kicked the blanket and top sheet off of me... off of the bed, actually, and stretched. Thank goodness for sleeping in my underwear, because even with just that, I was sweaty. Living in the south was absolutely horrible, because even in fall, it can hit over a hundred degrees during the day, which was made worse by the fact that at night? It was cold enough that you'd actually **need** to bundle up.

Opening my eyes, being momentarily blinded by the sunlight, I rolled my head to the left, focusing my vision so that I could actually see my clock. Seven. It was only seven and it was this fucking hot?! Goodness, how had I not died of heat stroke yet, ugh.

I rolled out of bed, sluggishly making my way to the dresser, to grab some clean underwear and a pair of shorts. I may have woken up sweaty and disgusting, but I wasn't going to stay that way.

So, after a very quick shower, I made my way down the hall. All the lights were off, so that meant no one was awake... well, other than the dogs, but they woke up as soon as you make noise, so they didn't really count. Kibbles looked up at me, and I gave him a pat on the head before he laid his head on Bits. Yeah, I know, original right?

Anyway, not wanting to wake anyone, I settled for a glass of orange juice for breakfast. It wasn't particularly satisfying, but since we didn't have cereal and making a smoothie would wake everyone up, and likely have them all furious with me... yeah, not going there.

I took the glass back to my room, setting it on my desk as I sat down, and booted up the computer. To be honest, I don't have any idea why I bothered getting on to check the social media sites that I had accounts on. I never, and I'm not exaggerating, had any notifications, never had any messages, meaning virtually -ha- no one ever attempted to talk to me. It was more or less just a way to check up on other people's lives, seeing as no one really cared about mine. Hell, the only time I got any real form of communication from anyone other than my parents was when someone thought I was going to off myself, at which point, I'd get some bullshit speech about how "I have so much to live for and everyone loves me and blah blah blah". Then, they'd disappear again, being satisfied for having done their "good deed" for the year.

Actually, you know what, I didn't care. There wasn't anything there for me to see, and nothing particularly interesting to keep me online, so I shut down the computer, sighing as I leaned back in my chair. I didn't really know what else to do, honestly.

I didn't have work again until Tuesday -it was Sunday-, and I wasn't in school... so what **could** I do?

Something that didn't involve me being stuck inside the house by myself the entire day sounded pretty nice. I guess I could go for a walk... Not something I got to do often thanks to the area we lived. Crummy trailer park filled with creepy, disgusting neighbors and surrounded by a ridiculously humongous forest. Walking alone around the neighborhood scared the ever-living hell out of me, though. They would stare and mumble, some would make obscene gestures... others would very clearly express their dislike for me, which has before resulted in my being hit in the ribs with a fucking **rock**.

Then again, the forest was filled with snakes, spiders, and some coyotes with attitude issues... So this was pretty much having to choose the lesser of two evils. Hmm...

Actually, if I take Kibbles with me, taking a walk around the neighborhood would be fine! After all, he's a right mean looking dog, despite his size, so I really don't think anyone would mess with us. I'd take Bits too, but she was pregnant, and I didn't want to put any unnecessary strain on her.

Besides, it was also early, so if I was lucky, no one in the area would be awake either, or they'd be at work at least... or at least I could hope it'd be that way.

"Kibbles, c'mon, we're going for a walk." The over-excited corgi jumped up and over his mate, standing at my feet, staring up at me expectantly as I opened the front door. Though as soon as I did, I closed it because holy fuck it was cold. How in the world could it be an oven in my house but a freezer outside?! Geez, fuck.

I snatched a hoodie off the sofa, hoping it was mine, and slipped it on. It wouldn't do too much, but it was better than nothing, especially considering the fact that I really didn't want to go change. "Well, let's go."

He jumped out of the house, bouncing around on the porch in excitement, and I let out a small chuckle. Silly dog. "Bye Bits. We'll see you later, girl." She barked once and wagged her tail, which I took as a "Have fun!", and locked the doors behind me. I paused though, standing on the steps... something... something felt really, really weird.

I looked around, but nothing looked wrong or out of place... It was probably just because it was early in the morning, or, well, the fact that it was going to rain.

"Well, let's go Kibbles." I jogged over to the street, though slowed my pace as I began making my way towards the back of the neighborhood, Kibbles matching my steps and padding along beside me. "Looks like it's gonna rain..." The dark clouds were a dead give away, which also likely meant a thunderstorm. "We'll just have to make sure to get back before it hits." He barked in response, running in a circle around me, tail wagging furiously. Of course he wouldn't care if it rained or not; he loved playing in the water. Personally though, I didn't want to end up getting sick.

As we made our way down the street though, that weird feeling started building up in my stomach. Paranoia kicked in, and every little sound had me on edge. All of the homes we passed by were... dead, for lack of better terminology. There were no cars in the driveway, all the lights were off... and any animal that was kept outside was hiding in the furthest, darkest corner of their house or cage..

The animals would usually be going crazy, barking, snarling, just about breaking their necks to get at us. I'd blame the weather, but Kibbles wasn't effected at all. Maybe they all felt what I was feeling...

Getting close to a particular house that I did not want to be near, I broke into a sprint, not stopping until I was two houses down from it. The weirdest, most perverted creep I have ever had the displeasure of encountering lived there, and on the off chance that he was actually home, I didn't want him to see me. Ugh.

Kibbles caught up to me quick enough, actually running past me when he did. He barked a few times, panting happily, tail wagging as he ran in a circle... then he stopped. In the middle of the street, he just stopped, everything, his ears folding back, tail going erect. Slowly, he turned, his attention completely centered on the forest. His lips curled into a snarl, and he emitted noises that I had never heard him make.

As far as corgis go, with their so called ever lasting cuteness, this was scaring even me.

I approached him, slowly, not wanting him to turn that attention on me, and directed my gaze to the forest. I watched, waited, listening for any sign of movement; anything that would have set him off.

After about five minutes of absolutely nothing, I nudged him with my foot, sighing, "Come on, you. There's nothing out there." Other than the usual anyway, which he typically wasn't afraid of.

He didn't move though, didn't even look up at me. He barked once, twice, and took a few steps forward. I squatted down next to him, pointing at the forest, "Look. It's just a bunch of trees," Most of which he's urinated on, "There is nothing... there..." Oh well fuck me.

There most definitely was something there, and I have no idea how I didn't see it before. It's figure was hidden by the darkness, so I couldn't tell what it was, but a pair of big, bright blue cat-like eyes stared at me, almost glowing. I stared, unable to turn away from them. It turned it's gaze towards me, and as eye contact was made, the eyes narrowed, and I could almost **feel** the creature smiling. It sent a shiver down my spine, and I reached for Kibbles, intending to just snatch him up and run like hell back to the house.

Right as I laid a hand on him, the blue eyed creature took off, heading further into the darkness, and of course he took off after it. Cursing angrily, I stumbled to get to my feet, and ran into the forest after them, despite everything inside of me screaming to not do so.

Thanks to my hoodie, my arms and torso were protected, but twigs, picker bushes, and thorny vines prodded and cut into my legs, and unfortunately, my face. I managed to avoid any major damage to my face though, but after a couple of minutes, I was a hell of a lot more angry than I was scared.

"Dammit to hell! Kibbles, would you stop already!?" I couldn't even hear them anymore, but I knew that they hadn't stopped. There was no way I'd catch up to them now; I didn't even know where they would have headed! I didn't even know where **I** was...

Luck was so not on my side either, because as I went to avoid a rather large picker plant, my left foot slid into a hole hidden by the leaves, twisting my ankle and causing me to tumble painfully forward.

I wanted to cry so fucking badly. "Can this day get any worse!?" In my frustration, I grabbed a rock off the ground and threw it as hard as I could at the bushes.

"Ow!" Just great, I hit someone. Lovely.

Sigh. "Sorry." I didn't know what else I could really say... Wait a second. "It's like eight in the morning; why the hell are you out here?" It wasn't hunting season around here or anything... not that there's anything in this forest worth hunting.

"I could ask you the same question." I heard shuffling, getting closer of course, but what emerged from the bushes was not exactly what I was expecting. It wasn't even human. The strange creature held out a clawed hand, the rock I had hit it with sitting in it's palm. "Would you like this back?" Well, at least I knew it was a girl now.

"Ah.. no... that's okay." With a shrug, she tossed the rock elsewhere, staring at me, looking me over... I did the same, unable to look away from her. She was... well, to put it simply, she looked like a giant talking stuffed cat. We caught each others gaze, and I held back a gulp as I directed mine downwards to my bleeding legs. "So..uhm.. have you seen Kibbles?"

"The dog?" I nodded. "No idea. I hid and he just kept running." That was just great. Now I'd have to spend the rest of the day hunting his butt down. Sigh.

"Lovely.." I mumbled to myself, plucking a thorn out of my calf.

"Tell me, boy, are you the human known as Theodore Fletcher?"

Curious, I raised an eyebrow at the oddly colored feline, scooting back a bit, "Who's asking?"

Stepping forward, a smirk on her face, she responded, "You may call me Gatomon." The hell kind of a name is Gato...mon... Ah shit. "I am here under the orders of Lord Myotismon to retrieve you."

At this point, I was very seriously hoping that I was either still asleep or had his my head on a tree or rock when I fell, because as what she said starting clicking into place, my panic sensors hit an all time high, and I started shaking. "Oh, well, ah.. sorry, but wrong guy. My name's," think fast, think really fast, "Markus." Yeah. "Markus Parker." Good job. "Theo's my neighbor though, so I can tell him you're looking for him after I get home." I offered a smile, fighting back the shaking and trying to look as calm and collected as possible.

"Well then, **Markus Parker**, tell me why I don't believe you."

Fuck. "Because I'm a horrible liar when I'm scared?" Just played right into that one, didn't you, dumb ass? This is why we need to work on getting that brain-to-mouth filter to work properly, because without it, your stupid mouth gets you into way too much trouble. "Look, I'm not a digi-destined. I'm not even a kid! I'm twenty-two! What would Myotismon even want with someone like me?!"

Her smirk widened, "Why don't you just ask him yourself?" I took a deep breath and closed my eyes as she raised her hands -paws?- at me, "Lightning Paw!"

That was the last thing I heard before my entire body was overcome with a burning, blinding pain. It felt like my heart was going to explode; like my body would just give out. It felt like I was dying. But I didn't. I blacked out, which I'd normally be worried about, but being unconscious was a hell of a lot better than having to feel that pain anymore.

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Chapter One : End


	2. Welcome To The Dark

**Chapter Two: Welcome To The Dark**

"Man that was one seriously messed up dream..." I sighed as I woke, grumbling to myself. It really was though, and it was definitely one I'd never forget. Man, "I swear.." It felt like it could have been real. There was no way though, since Digimon didn't actually exist. That horrifying pain that I felt when that stupid Gatomon attacked me though... that was freaky as hell. It was almost as if I was actually injured.

Or, you know what, I could just actually be in serious pain.

Oh yeah that hurt. Granted, it wasn't as bad as when she'd hit me, but I was sore all over, and I do mean all over. It felt like I'd done a week of Insanity in one day. Groaning, not wanting to get up, I rolled over, intending to just go back to sleep until it wore off.

The yelp I emitted a I lost contact with the bed, landing face down on a very, very cold, ceramic tile floor, pretty much told me that wasn't going to happen. "Ow." Hands flat on the ground, I pushed myself up, and sat on my knees, rubbing my face, which took about 90% of the fall. I was just not meant to have a good week.

"You talk quite a bit when you're sleeping. Did you know that?"

"I've been told I do; never really believed it though." Now, I knew for a fact that I did when I was having a nightmare, typically about something that had happened in the past, or something that I was afraid of. Stuff like that, y'know. But I didn't remember dreaming about anything like that? The only thing I dreamt of was being attacked... in the forest...

Dammit.

"Here, let me help you up." I hesitated, not wanting to open my eyes. I didn't want to look up. If what I dreamt of was real, then I was in Myotismon's castle.. lair.. whatever, which meant the only other creatures here were his servants. I knew it wasn't Gatomon, because it was a guy, and Myotismon would never help anyone... but who did that leave...

Deciding to take a chance, I lifted my hand, which was grasped by a soft, gloved one, and with his assistance, I successfully made it to my feet. Though I wasn't exactly stable, most of my body feeling like jello, I almost fell right back over. Thankfully, I didn't. I had to stand completely still for a few minutes, with him holding both of my hands to keep me steady, but, we succeeded.

"Thank you.." It came out as more of a whisper than anything else, but he heard me, and a small chuckle reached my ears. I opened my eyes then, finally looking at him. "You're... Wizardmon.." Oh thank the Higher Powers that it was a friendly face. I could have hugged him, I was so happy.

His smile dropped and he tilted his head, confused, "How do you know me?"

Oops. I shoved my hands into the front pocket of my hoodie, shuffling my feet, "Well.. I don't know you... I just kinda know of you." I'm going to sound like a creep. "You're Wizardmon... and as of now, you work for Myotismon.. but only through extension of Gatomon because she's your friend.. right?" Not knowing what to say, he remained quiet, just staring at me.. I couldn't blame him. For all intents and purposes, there's no way I should know that about him. My guess is they didn't give him the full story of what was going on. "She's ah... got one heck of a hit by the way."

It was a comment meant to lighten the mood, but he sighed, nodding, "I am very sorry about that. She was-"

Giving him a small smile, I cut him off, "Just following orders. I know that, and once she," Please don't fuck this one up, "realizes the error of her ways," perfect, "then I will happily forgive her." At this point though, I didn't know if she actually would. Other than the fact that a lot of the details of this world were blurry -seeing as it had been a good number of years since I watched the show-, my being here could wind up changing the course of the future...

"I hate to ask," I started, already knowing the answer, but desperately hoping I was wrong, "But is there any way you could get me out of here? Bring me back home? Or maybe even just point the way? I mean... there is a way back, isn't there?"

Again, he was at a loss for words, his eyes drifting downwards to avoid having to look in mine. A one way door. I wasn't surprised.

Letting out a heavy, defeated sigh, I sat back down on the -cot I realized-, that I had been sleeping on before, and rested my elbow on my knee, resting my chin on my palm as I looked up at Wizardmon. He gave a sigh himself, "I am so very sorry about all of this."

With another sigh, I waved my other hand at him, "No, no, it's fine. If there's nothing you can do, there's nothing you can do. I just appreciate the fact that you actually care." I smiled, though it faded quickly as I realized something.. "Wait, why are you watching me instead of like... Gatomon?"

"I volunteered to do so. Considering your first meeting, I didn't think you would want to wake up and be face to face with the digimon that attacked you." Oh. Well then. That was really nice of him to do, especially considering I would have been absolutely infuriated and probably have attacked her, which would result in me getting even more hurt than I already was. "I was also instructed to get you cleaned up... and into more appropriate looking attire."

At that, I raised an eyebrow at him, tensing up, "Let me guess..."

"Myotismon wishes to see you as soon as possible..." He trailed off, making it clear that he wasn't allowed to tell me why, so I simply sighed once more, and stood up.

"Lead the way then. Might as well get it over with." With an almost solemn nod, he began walking and I trailed behind him. I wonder what he wanted with me... maybe he intended to eat me? No, that didn't make sense. If he was going to kill me, he wouldn't have ordered for me to be cleaned... Oh, wait! He also only ate beautiful women! Thank goodness for small details, because that helped kill a bit of my anxiety. So, taking in what I knew, I could figure I wasn't going to be eaten, killed, beaten, or maimed... but I honestly couldn't think of any other reason he'd want to see me.

As we entered a smaller room, my questioning thoughts ceased, and the first thing that caught my eye was a wooden tub -it looked like what I use to bathe Kibbles and Bits-, sitting in the middle of the room. There was a stool next to it, with a wash cloth, a larger towel, and a bottle of some sort of soap sitting on top of it. Off to the side, in the corner, was another stool, though this one had a small pile of clothes on it, and sat in front of a full body mirror. There was no sink though, or toilet. Weird. Then again, they were digimon, so maybe they-

"Would you please remove your clothing so we can begin?" Oh hey look, that anxiety came back.

I did not, under any sort of circumstance, like being nude in front of anyone, human, animal, or otherwise! Shoot, I wouldn't even change in front of Kibbles and Bits. I hated my body, I had since I started fucking it up when I was fourteen. I was covered in scars, small, large, some not noticeable at all, but some clear as day. No one, aside from my ex, had ever seen me even partially nude -though that wasn't by choice-. I really didn't have a choice now though.

So, trying to not shake like a leaf in the wind, I took a deep breath, grasping the bottom of my hoodie, and the muscle shirt underneath, and pulled them up. I heard Wizardmon gasp as I pulled it off, turning it right side out, before folding it and setting it on the floor. His eyes were wide as he scanned over my torso, my arms. My eyes drifted downwards, my fingers tracing a particularly long set of scars going across my stomach. "Oh my..." Not like I could stop him from noticing, but now at least he'd understand my hesitation. "What happened to you?"

A sarcastic, half smile made its way onto my face and I let out a short, regretful laugh, "I did." I didn't say anything else on the matter, my tone of voice clearly stating that I wasn't going to explain or talk about it. His eyes held sadness now, pity, and I looked away from him, kicking off my shoes. I slid off me shorts and folded them up. As I placed them atop the hoodie, I hesitated... Pointing to my boxer briefs, I gave Wizardmon a quick glance, to which he nodded. I let out a mental cry of anguish, but did as told and removed my underwear as well, adding them to my little clothing pile.

Using my hands to cover up my private area, I turned back to Wizardmon, my face burning with embarrassment. Nodding again, he walked around me, to the tub, removing the items from the stool before sitting down. Not needing further verbal instruction, I shuffled over to the tub, which was already filled with water, and stepped into it. Thank the Higher Power for small favors because it was hot. I sat down, crossing my legs and placing my hands in my lap.

"I feel like a dog." I huffed, "Now all I need is someone to put a biscuit on my nose and tell me to beg."

"That can be arranged if you'd like." His laughing made me start to laugh, despite trying to bite it back, though it was cut very short as a bucket of water -where did he get a bucket?!- was dumped on my head. I puffed out my cheeks, shooting him a side glare that he just laughed at. "I must say, you are taking all of this rather well. I am quite surprised. So far, you've put up no resistance, you haven't tried to escape, and you appear to be content."

Blinking, I shrugged, "I think about it this way : if I try to escape or resist anything, you or someone else who likely won't be as nice, will be ordered to fight me down and restrain me. Not only would that be troublesome and tedious, but it would also likely result in me being attacked again." Which was not something I wanted to happen. Once was enough for me, thank you very much. "As far as being content goes, if I start thinking about all of it, I'll wind up over thinking and wind up panicking, which would then lead to me curling into a ball on the floor, crying, unable to breathe, and pretty much detaching myself from reality." I nodded, "Anxiety attack's what it is. Not fun. So, I'm just going with the flow, as it's what's best for my personal well being."

I ramble a lot, if you haven't noticed. "You are quite mature for your age. Your parents must be very proud of you."

Shrug. "Well, I am twenty-two... though I guess I'm lucky. Most other people my age and older seem to have the maturity level of a four year old." I chuckled, but Wizardmon grew quiet again, which, "Oh boy that is so not a good thing." I didn't even have to ask, I just knew. Dunking my head in the water to get the soap out of my hair, I wiped off my face, eyes specifically so I could see, then hastily stumbled out of the tub. I slipped, once, but managed to not hit the ground, so yay.

When I looked into the mirror though, my eyes scanning my reflection, taking in exactly what I was seeing... I let out a loud, angry groan, resisting the urge to hit the mirror. I mean really? **Really?! **By the damn Higher Powers, I looked like my little brother! Goodness gracious.

I should have figured something was wrong, considering the fact that I was barely taller than Wizardmon... and the strange high-ness of my voice.. and complete lack of body hair. But nope, not me. I have the observational skills of a dead squirrel! Son of a-

Whimpering, I slouched, poking at my now prepubescent body, the softness of my belly, smoothness of my skin...

As I walked back to the tub, I huffed, snatching the rag and soap from Wizardmon as I sat down in the water. A frown on my face, I grumbled about stupid digimon, having to go through puberty again, and being stuck as a scrawny little brat. Meh. I scrubbed at myself furiously, getting as clean as physically possible. Now I was mad, and wanted to get out of this bathroom as fast as possible and have a word with Myotismon. The kidnapping thing I could get over -eventually- but turning me into a freaking kid!? Was that actually necessary!?

As soon as I finished, I got out -being careful because I didn't want to hit the floor-, and took the towel that Wizardmon was holding out for me. I dried off -mostly-, and ran a hand through my hair to fix it as best I could. It would look good no matter what, but I'd rather not look like I had just climbed out of bed.

As I dug through the supplied clothing, I found a pair of solid black boxer briefs, which I slipped on immediately. Yay no more nudity! What was also supplied was pretty much exactly what I had on before. "So why can't I just wear my clothes?" Which I very quickly realized was a very stupid question. "Don't answer that." They were dirty, muddy, my shorts had been ripped, and there was blood all over them. Soooo, yeah, just gonna pretend those aren't there.

So I put on the white muscle shirt and socks first, followed by the blue and yellow hoodie th- "Ooo, this one has a zipper!" Small favors, small favors. A small smile flashed on my face, then I pulled the jean shorts on, happy that it all fit perfectly. Oh wait, shoes. Aha! Those were there too, yes! Nice, comfy sneakers. To be honest, considering who and what Myotismon is, I half expected him to want me to wear nothing but red and black, maybe even a cloak, haha. Stereotypical vampires were funny.

Now then, with a stern nod, I stood tall and followed Wizardmon down the hallway, or well, hallways. The entire place was a bloody maze, likely done on purpose to prevent prisoners from escaping. I turned my attention to myself, to the body parts that were visible; arms -I pulled the sleeves up-, legs, hands... So, I kept my body, my mind, memories, and apparently all of my scars, but my tattoos were gone, my piercings were gone -hundreds of dollars wasted-, and they took away twelve years of my life. In retrospect, they kind of actually gave me another twelve years to live.

Okay, so that wasn't too bad.

I was still pissed though... a little.

"Lord Myotismon," Wizardmon bowed as he spoke, his voice a lot more... flat than it had been when we were talking, "I have brought you the human child." Other than Myotismon, Gatomon was over against a wall, watching us with more intensity than I thought even a cat could muster, and a blue chicken with bat wings.

Myotismon turned to us, and as he approached, I immediately took back any and every thought regarding my "having a word with him". He was big, like, ridiculously gigantic, and the power he held was flowing off in waves. He didn't seem so scary on the television... So what did I, the brave twenty-two year old man, do? I smiled, letting out a nervous laugh as I began to tremble.

Now would really be a good time to have that brain-to-mouth filter up and running because if I said something stupid, I could actually be killed for it. "Hello there, little boy." Don't say anything back. Don't be a smart ass. Don't argue. "Your name is Theodore, correct?" He offered a fanged smile, and I gulped, nodding. "Now now, do not be afraid, child. I do not intend to cause you any harm." Pffft.. hahaha.. haha..

"It's... uhm... nice to make your acquaintance?" That sounded polite enough... I really had absolutely no idea what to say to him though, that wouldn't cause him to change his mind about that hurting me thing. "If it is alright to inquire," I paused, shuffling me feet, "sir, what is it that ah.. I have been brought here for?"

All he did was laugh, his grin widening, and turn around, walking back to his coffin -that I hadn't noticed before-. I let out a relieved sigh, wiggling my fingers a bit -nervous habit-. "There is a group of children currently residing in the Digital World," the way he was speaking implied that I knew exactly what he was talking about, "While they originally were no concern of mine, as of late, they are beginning to pose a threat." This early on? Wow. "Recently, they were able to gather enough power to destroy one of my more powerful minions." Devimon! "So I need someone to keep an eye on them. Someone they would never suspect works for me."

So he essentially wanted to make me a double agent, fighting fire with fire in a sense. Send in a human child to act as an eighth, or well, ninth technically, digi-destined, make friends, get them to trust me, then either lead them away from Myotismon or to their untimely doom. Either way, it'd be something that would ultimately allow Myotismon to take over both this world and Earth, and probably any worlds in between.

While his back was turned to me, I looked over at Gatomon, pulling down my eyelid and sticking my tongue at her. She huffed and turned away from me, and I counted it as a victory. "So I have chosen you, Theodore, to carry out this role." As I opened my mouth to ask a question, he continued, cutting me off. "I have been watching you for some time now, with the help of my servants, of course." Gatomon made no movement, but the chicken-thing grinned wide from his perch. "You are absolutely perfect for this role. You are filled with so much hate, so much evil." Wait.. what? "I have watched you suffer in silence every day, filled with pain, anger, wanting to die but unable to take your own life.

Your entire life was a meaningless waste. No one wanted you, no one loved you," I clenched my fists, nails digging into my palm, "Neither your family or friends wanted anything to do with you." His tone of voice was almost mocking, his smile fueling the fire burning inside me. "You would sell your soul to be free from that, to be free from that **life**; you said so yourself." I always knew that would come back to bite me in the ass. "Consider this your contract."

A small object was thrown at me, and I just barely caught it. Holding it in my hands, taking a good look at it... I couldn't... "A digivice.." Unlike the blue ones the actual digi-destined were given, this one was dark gray, almost black in color. It was giving off a weird energy... the same kind that Myotismon himself gave off.

"That is a creation of mine." I looked back up at him, "It is an exact replica of the originals, and works the very same way, except for a few... special modifications." That had me a bit worried. "Through it, I will be able to track your movements and pinpoint your exact location at any time I wish to do so." That wasn't surprising. "Once you secure a digimon partner, both of you will be permanently bonded to that digivice." I held it up looking over it. How the hell.. "It was created by combining the data and dark energy from my very soul, so as long as I live, it, and you, will be connected to me. You belong to me now." That dog comment I made during my bath floated through my head and I mentally chuckled. Pfft. All I need now is a collar.

"Just out of curiosity... you're going through all this trouble... but what's to stop me from tossing this into a river or something and making a break for it?" Not that I would actually get anywhere.

At that, his smile grew dark, and I took a step back, "Nothing, but I would advise against doing so. You do know of me, and I am certain you know of at least a fraction of what I am capable of," I nodded slowly, and he held up a single clawed hand, a black, smoke-like aura emitting from his fingertips. It drifted through the air, circling around me. My breath was caught in my throat, my heart pounding. I felt... I-I don't know.. it just... it was almost as though my soul was being torn apart. "Can you feel it? The darkness sinking in to your very core, corrupting every part of your being?" I nodded quickly, holding back tears. "If you attempt to escape, if you betray me, I will destroy what is left of your human soul and fill you with so much darkness, that no one will ever be able to save you."

In an instant, the aura was gone, and I wobbled on my feet, shivering violently, grasping my head. That had to be the most unpleasant feeling I had ever experienced in my entire life. "Ugh.." Okay, yeah, we are going to make a point to not have to experience the worst of that.

"Now, are you going to cause me any problems, Theodore?"

"N-No.. sir.." Standing back up straight, I took a deep breath, coughing a few times. "J-Just tell me where to go." My entire body stiffened as he approached me, kneeling down to be a little closer to my height -which didn't to squat-.

As he raised his hand, I clenched my eyes shut, preparing for the worst. Nope. Instead, I felt something being slipped around my nec- son of a bitch, that goddamn dog thing.

Somehow, I knew what it was even before I looked down; a tag and crest. "This, dear Theodore, is the Crest of Darkness," So much darkness, "With this, your partner will be able to digivolve to levels unknown to those digi-destined brats."

Deciding it would be best to just remain silent and nod, I held my tongue, hoping that I'd be able to at least figure out enough about this world to actually survive.

* * *

**Chapter Two : End**


	3. I'll Protect You

**Chapter Three: I'll Protect You**

"Can I take off the blindfold yet?"

"No! Yer gonna keep it on! Now shut up and keep walkin'." The blue chicken, whose name I found out was Demidevimon, was the one chosen to lead me away from Myotismon's lair and out into the world. Great choice, right? Horrid company, he was. Thanks to his directions, I'd walked into three trees, fell into a bush, and almost broke my foot. I'm pretty sure the only reason I wasn't dead was because I'd managed to wriggle the blindfold up just enough to see underneath it.

So he was annoyed that I wasn't getting hurt anymore, but didn't know why, so, point for me.

Seriously though, I was getting tired. We, well, **I**, had been walking for at least two hours now, and taking into consideration the fact that I was still sore from Gatomon, I hurt, bad, and my patience was running very, very thin.

"Then how much longer until we get to where we're going?"

"Look ya brat, we go until I wanna stop, got it? Stop askin' questions, stop whining, and **keep walking!**"

"Okay, y'know what," I stopped, standing firm in my spot, holding back a growl, "It's been two hours. Two **very fucking long** hours." I ripped off the blindfold, glaring at him with enough hatred to kill someone. "I'm in pain. I'm tired. And I am damn well finished with letting you lead me around in what's probably one big circle, trying to see how much you can get me to hurt myself."

I stepped towards him, and he gulped, "So guess what?"

"What?"

"Game over." Before he had the chance to process what was going on, I'd grabbed him by his foot and jerked him down to me. I slipped the blindfold over both of his wings, tightening it as much as I could, then proceeded to tie the ends around is feet -hog-tie style baby-. "So listen here you little shit," I held him up by his feet, "I'm going to do things my way, which means that your services are no longer needed." Spotting the gleam of water in the corner of my eye, I made my way over.

"Hey! Stop! What are you doing!? Let me go!" He wriggled and writhed, trying to bite at the blindfold, or me, but with no success. So standing on the edge of a nice sized little pond near a waterfall, I smiled. "Oh, c'mon kid! It was all in good fun!"

"See you later." In one swift motion, I released him, raising my foot and kicking as hard as possible. My aim was a little off though, so instead of flying, he skimmed at high speed across the water, smashing into the opposite bank. Seemingly unconscious, he just floated there, unmoving as the current took him away. "Much better."

So with a smile on my face, I ventured back over to the forest and plopped my happy ass down in the soft grass. Finally, time to relax and actually try and think up some sort of plan. I couldn't just wander around aimlessly. I'd never get anywhere, and likely wind up dying of starvation or dehydration. Or I could be eaten.

The rules were different here, and seeing as there were digimon the size of houses, it was very likely that they wouldn't mind snacking on a nummy little human.

Okay, so seriously... I didn't have a digimon partner. He kept saying I have to choose one but how exactly was I supposed to go about doing that? Just walk up to one I like and go 'Hi there, I work for Myotismon. Wanna help me ruin some lives and allow for him to take over the world?' Because I don't think that would work. More so because I was, y'know, evil and all. Dark crest.

I mean, sure there were plenty of evil digimon in the world, but most of them were like... Well, like Demidevimon, or worse.

Suppose I would just have to move on and hope it just sort of... happens. Maaaan.

Looking up to the sky, I stared at the evening sky... It was even prettier here than it was back home... just weird, cause of the data lines and stuff that flashed every once in a while. I needed to make a fire... and find food... I needed t..o...

xxXxx

Yaaaaaaaawn~ Mmm, sleep felt good. So so good... wait a minute.

My eyes shot open, being met by a blinding sunrise. Goodness, I'd actually slept the entire evening and night. I shouldn't have been surprised, considering how my last two days had gone, but I was. It was a pleasant surprise though.

And what made that surprise better was the fact that there was what appeared to be fruit, set in a neat little pile in front of me... and there was a wooden bowl with water in it. That meant that someone had found me during the night... A sigh of relief escaped me, a smile on my face, thankful that it wasn't Demidevimon coming back for revenge, or some other nasty digimon.

First though, I stood up, using the tree I was near for balance, to get the feeling back in my legs, and ensure that I wouldn't fall back asleep if I sat down again. The area I was in looked somewhat familiar... and since I was getting a pretty good vibe from it, I figured I was safe. Phew.

So taking a seat, I picked up a piece of the fruit... it was yellow like a banana, but shaped like a peach.. Never hurts to try something new, so... "It tastes... goodness this is absolutely amazing." My stomach growled loudly, begging for more of the delicious fruit, and I was more than happy to oblige.

All of the fruit was like that. Weird colors, weird shapes, but they all tasted like they were sent down by the Higher Powers themselves. Man, if all the food in the digital world tasted like this, I never wanted to leave!

After I washed down the food, I sighed happily, patting my full belly. I wondered who or what would have done that for me though. If I found out, I'd have to do something nice for them, because they did me one hell of a favor.

It was time to get going though; I couldn't exactly stay in one spot all day... even if I was still sore. Now, it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been, just a mild annoyance now. As I started on my way, deciding to follow the river. That's what they did in movies, right? Follow the river or stream or something and it typically led them to a town or village? Or the ocean, depending on your location... Ah well, still worth a shot.

I did unzip my hoodie -jacket-, though. While it wasn't too hot, it just felt better having it open. It allowed the breeze to flow through and keep me cool as I walked. It was a nice day, at least, no sign of rain, fluffy white clouds in the sky. B-e-a-utiful.

That didn't help me though.

"Are you lost?" I jumped from the suddenness, looking around for the owner of the voice, "Ooh, wow, you're a human!" From the bushes emerged a very happy, toothy, pink ball of... Well, I dunno, but it was cute. "I'm Koromon!" It, he, bounced over, grinning up at me.

Kneeling down, I offered him a smile of my own, "Hi there, little guy. My name's Theodore, but you can call me Theo if you'd like." I tilted my head, "Yeah, I'm a little lost... I took a bit of a knock to the head a few days ago... and I can't remember where I was supposed to be going.." A little lie wouldn't hurt anyone. I mean, it wasn't really a **lie**, just a few truths strung together with a bit of a twist.

"It's very nice to meet you, Theodore!" Was worth a shot. "If you follow me to my village, you can relax and rest up until you find your way! We love having guests!" Without giving me the chance to respond, he began hopping off back into the forest. I hurried after him, not wanting to get left behind. The Higher Powers were offering me one hell of an opportunity and I wasn't about to waste it.

I was worried though... I mean... I didn't want to wind up having to hurt any of the little guys... Koromon were awesome. They were sweet and nice, and they just looked so innocent! They didn't deserve to be treated badly...

Thinking about it, I had never actually played out the role of 'bad guy' before. People had dubbed me as such since I was in middle school; the evil, creepy, weird kid. It was one of the main reasons I was alone now. After listening to everyone's opinion about me, if I did one thing wrong , one thing that someone didn't agree with, they'd blow it out of proportion and would wind up making me out to be the worst person on the planet.

But I never actively played the role... I just sort of accepted that's what I was, even though I never felt like it.

Man, I didn't want to do this shit. I wanted to... I don't know, be doing something, anything, but being some evil monster's pet. I'd get out of it. No matter what, I'd find a way to get free and help destroy that bastard.

Pushing the darker thoughts aside, I smiled as we broke through the treeline, the village now in full view. There were Koromon all over the place! There were some gathering food, others fixing up their homes, some just hanging around and having fun.

"Come on! Come ooooon!" Shaking my head, I followed -I'll just call him Koro-, towards the center of the village. All of the Koromon stopped what they were doing, staring at us -me, specifically- with wide eyes, whispering to one another. They hadn't seen humans before, I suppose. "Hi there everyone! This is Theodore!" He sure was a happy little guy. "He's one of the digi-destined!"

That was an assumption, but it was correct... more or less. Technically, I was one now... besides, if I remember correctly, the digi-destined were the only ones allow- "**GAH**!" I yelped as I was swarmed, the mass of them managing to knock me onto my butt. I had some around me, some in my lap, and even one on my head! I couldn't help but laugh, grinning at the lot.

"Are you really one of them?" Hesitation struck me for a moment, but I nodded, reaching into my pocket to pull out my digivice. "Wooow! That means you're here to stop all of the bad digimon!" As I nodded, they cheered, bouncing, but one, Koro -he was bigger than the rest-, broke the mood.

"There has been a group of Pagumon hanging around lately. We noticed them about two days ago," I think I remember this... "I've only seen one or two at a time, but I know there are more, and we're worried that they're planning something."

"Will you protect us Theodore?"

"Please?"

"Please help us!"

"I.. uhm.. I..." A bad feeling was already bubbling in the pit of my stomach, and I somehow knew that no matter what I said or did, this wouldn't wind up going well. "I don't... You know what, I will help!" Partner or not, I had to try. "I'll do whatever I can to keep those Pagumon away!"

And so the cheering resumed, most of the group bouncing away to go back to whatever it was they were doing before we had shown up. Since it was morning, I really didn't think the Pagumon would try anything. Trying a take-over or something in daylight when everyone is awake and at full strength just wouldn't work.

So I had to assume they'd strike once everyone went to sleep. "I don't think you guys have anything to worry about right now; no one with half a brain would try to pull something off in broad daylight. So once it's starts getting dark, I'll stand guard, and if they show up, I'll give the signal and we can fight 'em off!"

"That sounds great!" Koro grinned, "But what's the signal?"

Ah.. "Me, yelling very loudly." I scratched my cheek, "Trust me, everyone will hear." I smiled, a tad embarrassed. "Just wondering, but how big are Pagumon?"

"They're about as big as all of us Koromon." Hehehe... soccer practice. "Well, this evening when we all sit down for supper, I'll tell everyone the plan. Hopefully this works!" Hopefully. If not, well, we tried, and that's what counts. "I've got to get to work, feel free to relax and enjoy yourself." I nodded as he hopped off, but I had no idea what to do.

I settled for walking a little ways away, and spreading out in the grass. It was a lot softer than the grass back at home. It was definitely more comfortable than that cot I woke up in at Myotismon's place. Blagh.

Okay, so I fell asleep. Can you really blame me though?

I yawned, rubbing my eyes as I sat up. For the first time since I got here, I actually felt like a kid, just sitting there, drowsy, still tired, but fighting to stay awake. I sure was awake though, after looking down and seeing a small group of Koromon around me. "Huh?"

"We thought you were dead!"

"No we didn't! We just came over to see if you wanted to play with us!"

"But you were sleeping so we just waited instead of waking you up."

If I had to take a wild guess, I would say that these Koromon were the "children". I am way too old to run around with a bunch of- Okay, technically, I was, but physically... I was small, young, and full of more energy than I'd had in a long time, so why not! "Well, what do you guys wanna play?"

"Tag!" All of them yelled it out at the same time, and I laughed.

"Okay, tag, just let me go put my stuff by the houses to make sure I don't lose anything." They nodded, bouncing along after me as I went to the largest house in the village. First, I removed my jacket, and folded it up, then placed my tag and digivice in the folds, and set it on the ground. That way it'd be safe, and I'd be able to keep an eye on it. I'd have taken off my muscle shirt too, but I... yeah, didn't want them to see all that. My arms weren't too much of a big deal, because I could say that, like my legs, I just got scratched up in the forest.

They were kids after all, they wouldn't think to question it.

"Alright! Let's go! I'll be 'it' first!" A series of laughs were heard as the group bounced, ready to go, "You guys get a five second head start... so go!" They all bounced off, and I stood there, waiting, a happy grin on my face. I hadn't got to really do something, especially something like this, in a very, very long time. It was... it was pretty darn cool.

Being the smart digimon they are, they all took off in different directions, but I took off into the direction that the most of them had gone. They giggled, turning fast and heading behind me, but I still had the reflexes of a twenty-two year old, so before the little guys could blink, I snatched one up as it made a dive between my legs. Reflexes, yes, balance, no, because I hit the ground, my shoes sliding in the grass, leaving me on my butt.

"Are you okay?" The Koromon I caught looked up at me, concerned.

I smiled, laughing, "Yep! But now you're it!" I sat her back on the ground and scrambled to my feet, running off, sticking my tongue at her as I did.

As I was running though, something caught my eye. There was a Koromon sitting far off to the side, watching us play. Smiling, I waved at it, telling it to come over. I think I scared it though, because it kind of freaked out and high-tailed it out of the area. Confused, I looked over to a few that were around me, "Hey guys, what was with that Koromon just hanging out over there?"

"He's weird. We never play with him."

"Koromon aren't supposed to have stripes!" Not wanting to hear what I knew was going to be a 'let's hate on the weird kid' dealie-o, I dodged to the right, changing directions. I'd have to talk to the little guy later, but for now, it was time to play!

It went on like that for a few hours, at least, and when they saw how much fun we were having, other Koromon joined in as well. We took breaks periodically, to get some water and rest our -my- legs, but we never ran out of energy. It felt wonderful, absolutely wonderful. I had forgotten what being a kid was like. Thanks to varying factors, that I will not go into, I was forced to 'grow up' long before I was supposed to. At ten years old, ironically enough, I had to be a grown up. One big reason is that my little brother was born then, and he was the baby.. so as big brother, I was given responsibilities, a lot of them.

My dad was never home, and mom was always working, so when I didn't have school, or even some days when I did, I had to stay home and watch over him; making bottles, changing diapers, bathing him, just... Pretty much, for the first three years of his life, I was his caregiver. Once mom quit her job and started **being** a mom, I was hitting puberty, was going to junior high... and I couldn't be a kid anymore.

But now? I had a second chance! Yeah, Myotismon brought me here to be his spy or whatnot, but in retrospect, he literally gave me a second chance at my life! Once this was all over, I'd have to thank him for that.

Y'know, if we aren't all dead or enslaved.

"Helloooooo! Is anyone there?" Eh? "Dude, what happened? You kinda just stopped running and stood there.."

"Yeah, you weren't moving! It was like you got frozen!"

A light blush of embarrassment tinting my cheeks, I smiled, "Sorry. I kinda got lost in thought. I think I'm gonna go for a walk. You guys keep playing though; I'll be back," Confused, but not wanting to question, they nodded, bouncing away.

Before I did leave though, I grabbed my stuff; putting the tag around my neck, though choosing to clip the digivice to my shorts, instead of sticking in my pocket. It was warm out, or, warm enough to feel nice but not be uncomfortable, so I tied my jacket around my waist, something I hadn't done since I was in junior high, haha.

As I entered the forest, I picked up a decent sized rock, and carved an 'X' into the tree. I'd do that every few minutes, so I'd have some sort of way to find my way back. If I got hungry enough, I could probably smell my way back... Okay, note to self, stop with the dog references. They're funny, but no.

Making a face, I shook a right naughty mental image out of my head. Blagh. I'm a kid now! I shouldn't be thinking like that. The last thing I need is to make myself sexually frustrated while I was here.

To be honest, I was surprised that there weren't any digimon running about in the forest... then again, they weren't animals. They could think logically, talk, and such. Most of them probably had their own little villages and stuff, living in groups like the Koromon.

Or I could be wrong. Very wrong.

Shuffling, in the bushes. I really hated shuffling in the bushes. But I wasn't about to be electrocuted or something, not again! I took a deep breath, closing my eyes. If I could focus, I could determine exactly where the digimon was, and hopefully get it before it got me. It was moving, though not very fast... a little to the left... a little more... There!

I dove into the bushes, tackling the digimon that was there. "Oomph!" Landing was not that pleasant, and I was pretty sure I scraped my legs a bit, but I got him! "Hey! What was that for!?" As I sat up, looking down at the digimon I'd grabbed, I was... mildly confused and concerned. "Hey! You're that human brat that's hanging with the Koromon!"

I kept my arms wrapped tightly around it's arms and waist, narrowing my eyes, "Yeah, I am. What's it to you, Gazemon?" He seemed surprised that I knew who, what, he was.

"Let me go and I'll talk!"

"Fine, but if you even **look** like you're gonna pull something, I'll pound you back into a digi-egg!" I felt something.. something really weird. He felt it too, because we both looked down, seeing my crest giving off a dark glow, which kind of seems like an oxymoron. Basically, it had that same dark aura Myotismon had, flowing around it.

As I let Gazemon go, he jumped back away from me, but looked almost.. too scared to try anything. If that crest will keep digimon from attacking me, then I'm pretty damn happy with it. "You... you're that kid..." A shiver ran through him, and he cleared his throat, "Well then... If yer workin' with us, why are ya hanging out with the Koromon?"

Sigh, "Because I'm a double-agent. Y'know, play the good guy to get information and stuff?" Realization flashed across his face, and I continued, "Look. In order to make sure Myotismon's plans work, you, and all your friends, are gonna have to treat me like you would the digi-destined. As far as anyone knows, we're enemies, got it?"

"So when we take over the village, we gots ta tie you up too?" I nodded, "Well, not a problem then, chief. I gotta ask though, why are ya workin' for him? Yer just a little kid."

"To be honest, I don't want to. He kidnapped me, stole me from my home. If I don't do what he says, well.. I'm as good as dead." I felt my eyes start to water, but quickly wiped the tears away. "Sorry..." That's all I need is to get emotional about the situation. Deep breath. "I've only been here like three days. I'm still not used to... everything."

Frowning, Gazemon reached over and patted my head, "Don't worry, kiddo. I'm sure things'll turn out great for ya. Ya never know, maybe the digi-destined actually will manage ta destroy him. Then ya'd get to go home!"

Smiling, I nodded, "Thanks, Gazemon... Despite what I've heard, you're a pretty cool guy." He grinned, and a light blush shown through his fur. "I gotta get going now, but I hope I get to meet you again one day, y'know, once everything's said and done." Before I stood back up, I pulled him into a hug, which, surprisingly, he returned. "Bye, Gazemon."

"See ya later, kiddo."

Well, look at that. I made a friend, sort of. I'll consider him a friend even if the feeling isn't mutual, because he was nice and considerate, even after what I told him. Maybe if I didn't manage to find a partner, I could just make like a team of digimon that want to help me. That would kind of make me like a pokemon trainer...

The thought caused me to giggle. I was in a pretty good mood. So far, the day had been pretty awesome, and now I was on my way back to the Koromon village, and would get to play with them some more. Maybe I'd try to go fishing, help out gathering food. Or I could gather wood and supplies for them. Just something that would help. I owed them at least that for being so generous.

* * *

**Chapter Three : End**


	4. Trapped

**A/N ; Saturday May 31st, will be the last update until June 24th. I'll be out of state for a surgery from the 1st until the 13th, but I'll be recovering for the following weeks and will not be around my computer. I'll be putting up TWO CHAPTERS on the 31st though.**

**NatNicoe** ; I'm glad you do! X3 Perhaps he will~! I'm still working on the later chapters, but it's definitely a possibility. ;3

* * *

**Chapter Four: Trapped**

Once evening rolled around, we were all called to the main house, much to the disappointment to those who were still running about, myself included. We were in the middle of an awesome game of hide and seek, and I only had two Koromon left to find! But, as the 'chief' said, we're 'just kids' and need to listen to the 'adults'. Blagh.

On the plus side, it meant we got to eat! Sadly, I didn't get to try fishing, because I didn't have the stuff to make a pole... so dinner consisted of what the Koromon normally gather; fruit! Or at least it looked like fruit. I was still debating on that, but it looked like the stuff someone had left for me in the morning, so I wasn't about to complain.

Dinner was actually pretty fun. I told them stories from my life, the few funny things I could recall, and they told me stories about the digital world. We all wound up laughing up a storm, causing me, more than once, to either choke on what I was eating, or swallow it whole. Though, one Koromon wasn't laughing. He didn't join in the fun, he didn't contribute to story time; he just sat off in a corner, nibbling... well, honestly, I couldn't tell what he had.

Something in my head clicked though. He was the Koromon from earlier. The one that ran off. Actually being able to get a better look at him, I could understand why the Koromon would label him as 'weird'. As opposed to the plain, baby pink color that Koromon were, he had blue stripes across him, and his eyes were a really pretty, clear blue color. As if feeling my gaze, he looked up from his food, making eye contact with me for a brief moment. I froze, a shiver running up my spine, and from the looks of it, he experienced the same thing.

We looked away at the same time, him immediately returning to his food. Me, on the other hand, leaned down to the 'chief', "If it's alright to ask, what's up with him." I didn't even have to point out which Koromon I was talking about; he just knew.

With a sigh, he answered, "There is something wrong with him. His appearance is a dead give-away, but... he's nothing like us. If not for his origin, I wouldn't think he was a Koromon at all."

That's kind of depressing. Made me a bit angry to. They treated him like the humans back home treated me, just with less abuse and more isolation. It's one thing to have your friends abandon you, but to be ignored, hated, by your entire family? Disowned by the very people you were forced to live with? I knew for a fact that he was hurting.

For the remainder of the meal, I kept an eye on him, though still participated in the conversation. He'd look over every once in a while, and I'd smile at him. It made him curious, confused, and I swear, he started smiling back, but tried to hide it.

"It's getting pretty late," I noticed as I looked out the window, "You guys go ahead and get some rest, and I'll go keep watch. If they show up, I'll give the signal, and we can fight 'em off. Sound good?"

"Yeah!" A pause, "What's the signal again?"

"Ah... me. Screaming very loudly." I nodded, smiling, because if a bunch of digimon jump out at me, my first instinct will be to scream, followed by a big ole' 'NOPE' which would involve me using them as soccer balls, like with Demidevimon.

They wished me good luck as I went off to the edge of the forest, near where I had went walk earlier. If Gazemon were hanging around, my guess was that they'd likely come from this area. And if not, it'd just give me more time to alert everyone.

For now though, it was quiet. No rustling in the forest, no footsteps. Nothing. That was good and bad. Good because, yay no fighting, but bad because being in complete silence with nothing to do meant the only thing I could do was **think**, which would lead to over thinking, which meant I'd wind up making myself upset.

Sad, but true.

"May not be how I'd want to spent my night, but it's better than doing nothing at all." Plus side, there aren't any mosquitoes, roaches, moths, or other unpleasant insects in the digital world! "I have purpose now." The thought made me smile, albeit sadly. "Of course, it had to be something that made everything they said true."

After all, back home, I was the bad guy, the villain. When it first came up, we made a game out of it, but after a while... well, they figured the label 'villain' fit me well enough to permanently stick it to me. It started off as small, stupid stuff. We'd get into small arguments about silly things. I didn't figure there was a problem though, everyone argues, and it was never hostile. Always a bit of fun.

Then they started paying really close attention to me. How I acted around people, the way I reacted to certain things, the way I spoke, what I said. They'd wait for me to mess up. Just once, any little thing, and they'd get angry, throw it in my face. I never knew what was wrong, so I'd get angry and retaliate, which just gave them more fuel, and I didn't realize what was going on until it was too late. One by one, they stopped talking to me, all still having fun with each other, but shutting me out.

I gave up after a while, trying to fix things, even though I didn't know what I'd done in the first place. It wasn't worth the stress, the pain. So I was left behind, while they all moved on with their lives, making new friends, having new adventures.

It's like with a dog. You buy a puppy because it's small and cute, but after a while, that puppy gets bigger, older. It loses the appeal it once had. You stop paying attention to it. No more fetch, no more walks. It might as well be a piece of furniture. Then one day, you get tired of seeing the dog, and it winds up in the pound, but because it's so big, old, it stays there. Everyone passes it by, no matter what it does to get their attention. The dog starts losing hope, it gets sick, and for all it knows, the end is coming.

Then by some miracle, if it's lucky, someone, one person, will see it for all it is, will take it home and give it a second chance. It gets to be a puppy again, but with someone that will love it forever.

It was sort of the same for me, if you count this as that second chance, especially since I really was turned into a 'puppy' again, so to speak.

That didn't really help me feel better though. I was still screwed. If my crest can do what he said it could, then I'd definitely wind up giving the kids a run for their money... but there's eight of them, and one of me. Maybe they'll wind up just killing me and freeing me from it all.

"Why are you crying?" I jumped, my back smacking into the tree I was sitting by. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you..."

"N-no.. it's fine." Taking a deep breath, I got back into a more relaxed position. My hand touched my face, and like he'd said, there were tears there. "I didn't even realize I was..."

"It's okay to cry, you know. It means you're brave." It surprised me... that when I looked down, it was the blue-eyed Koromon. "You have a lot of things going on in your head, huh?" Confused, I tilted my head, blinking at him, "I've been sort of watching you today... and when you're asleep, or when you start thinking, your smile goes away, and your eyes look really sad... or scared. You also looked like you were having a really bad dream last nig-"

He stopped, looking away embarrassed. "You're the one that left the food and water for me." Refusing to look at me, he nodded, his ears -are they ears?- going flat against his head. Smiling lightly, I picked up the little guy and gently hugged him, planting a kiss on the top of his head, before setting him in my lap. "I really appreciate that. I hadn't eaten in a few days, so you really helped me out."

Settling in my lap, he sighed happily, "I'm glad it helped." I rested my arms around him, my thumb caressing his cheek. "Hey Theodore," I looked down to see him looking up at me, "Thanks for.. well, not hating me."

"I don't have a reason to hate you. You're sweet and kind, very helpful too. His cheeks tinted again, darker, "And I think you look really cool. You look different than other Koromon, so that means you're extra special." Tears built up in the corners of his eyes, "I didn't mean to make you cry! I'm sorry!"

"It's okay. It's a happy cry! You're the first to ever be nice to me... And the first one to understand.."

"I'm gonna tell you a bit about me, before I came here." Deep breath. "You see, almost every single human I met hated me, after just looking at me. Now, no two humans look the same." Most of the time, anyway. "But to other humans, I looked really, really strange. My eyes are a bunch of different colors at the same time. My hair is really dark and messy." I laughed, "They thought the clothes I wear were ugly and stupid."

"Man, are humans blind? You look way cool!"

"I wish, haha. Humans are just very judgmental creatures. They don't like those that look, think, or act different than them. I'm not like that, though. As long as you're nice to me, I'll be nice to you... well, unless you're being mean to someone else."

It got quiet for a few minutes, Koromon drifting off into thought. I yawned, rubbing my eyes. Standing guard was cool and all, but staying up all night was going to be seriously difficult. Part of me wished they'd just attack already so we could get it over wi- My head shot to the right, chest tightening. I heard something... And from the feeling I was getting, it had to be the Pa-

"Theodore... uhm... can I.. I mean.. uhm.." I looked down to Koromon, tilting my head, "Can I... w-would you..." A smile was already making it's way onto my face; I just knew what he was about to ask. "WhenyouleavecanIcomewithyouandbeyourpartner!?" He gasped, taking in some much needed air, staring up at me hopefully.

Of course, in sheer joy, I burst into a fit of giggles, scooping him into another hug, "I'd love for you to come with me!" That weird feeling... the one I felt when I encountered that Gazemon.. but it was stronger now. It kind of stung. "Huh.." My crest was glowing again, which was weird, since it was a dark glow, but it lit up the space between myself and Koromon. It was also kind of floating. "Okay, now I'm a bit worried."

"What... is that?"

"That my cres-" Cut off by the dark glow turning into a blinding, burning, flash. Not an exaggeration either. It surrounded us in a bubble of dark glowy-ness, and my head felt like it was burning. Biting back the stream of curse words that I oh so desperately wanted to yell, I growled, clenching my head in my hands. Son of a muffin baking cracker jack eating jerk in a flamingo tutu, that **HURT**.

It flashed out in an instant, leaving us both confused and in pain. I tried to focus on Koromon, see if he was alright. Our eyes met, and my heart jumped into my throat as I saw his eyes flash red, a symbol momentarily appearing on his forehead. From the look on his face, I'd bet a weeks worth of cookies that he saw the same thing happen to me.

"What the he-" Cut off, again, though this time by more noise coming from the forest. Slowly, I got to my feet, Koromon in my arms. "Be as quiet as possible." I whispered to him. My eyes closed and I took a slow, deep breath, focusing on the sounds around us. They were there alright, but I couldn't determine exactly how many. There would at least be as many as there were Koromon, plus some Gazemon... "Hya!" One jumped out and just as the ugly little ball of evil appeared, my foot was planted in it's face, and away it went, flying far back into the forest. "Come and get it you bunch of f-"

Hey, who turned out the lights?

xxXxx

I wasn't even going to attempt to pretend that everything was a dream, because by now I definitely knew better. There was no point in getting my hopes up only to have them all coming crashing back down as soon as I opened my eyes.

"You're okay!" Opening one eye, I spotted my Koromon in a tiny cage by himself near the exit. "They hit you pretty hard... you've been out for almost two days!" Two days? Geez, what in the world did they hit me with? Felt like a lead pipe, ugh. "How do you feel?"

What was a way to word this in a way they might understand... "Like I got run over by a Trailmon." Didn't think they'd know what a semi-truck was, so that was the closest thing I could think of. "How about you? Everyone else?"

"We're all okay. They didn't hurt us. Just put us in these stupid cages!" Well here comes that dog bit again. I never should have said something about it because now it was haunting me. Sigh.

So, let's see. We've been locked up for two days and- hey they tied my hands behind my back. Shit. Ugh. Anyway, so it's been two days, we have no food, no water... there's no telling how long we would be stuck here. It takes about a week or so without water to die of dehydration, and about a month or so to die of starvation. So if it's been two days, we have about five left before we're really in trouble. We couldn't call for help either because they put us behind a bloody **waterfall**.

"Looks like all our prisoners are finally awake." All eyes turned to the waterfall, wherea Gazemon stood, two Pagumon by it's side. "Almost thought we killed the human. Good to see you're up and kickin'." Oh, I'm sure.

"Hey you stupid digimon, let out us of here!" My buddy was a hell of a lot more angry than I thought he'd be, especially considering all the other Koromon were scared shitless. "If you let us out now, I promise I won't hurt you..." His grin said otherwise, though.

"No way, brat. We got word from King Etemon," Etemon?... Etemon... well crap, I can't remember which one that is. "that the other digi-destined are on there way here, so we need to 'borrow' your village, in order to capture them." The Gazemon smirked, turning his attention to me, "We'd bring you now, but the reward's a whole lot bigger if we bring the entire set."

"Don't worry. We'll come check up on ya in a day or so to make sure you're still alive." The Pagumon laughed, and I growled loudly, narrowing my eyes at them. They jumped a bit, not having expected that, but just made a face at me before the group left, laughing the entire way.

Still growling, I threw my head back in anger, which turned out to be a bad idea since I made full on contact with the back of the cage. "Ow!" Huffing, an angry pout on my face, I leaned forward, gently resting my head on the bars. "I'm sorry everyone. They got us by surprise." More or less anyway. "Some digi-destined I'm turning out to be..." That last bit was mumbled to myself, not wanting them to hear it.

"It's alright, Theodore. We're all just glad that you tried to protect us. It really means a lot." I suppose it would... but that really didn't help us out now, did it? This entire scenario was a big combination of a lot of things that I really, really, **really**, didn't like, and if not for my burning anger, I'd probably be having an anxiety attack.

I began wiggling my fingers, to not only keep the blood flowing, but to see if I could maybe untie, or at least loosen the ropes. Tongue poking out of my mouth as I concentrated, I reached as far as I could, managing to grab hold of one of the ends. Digging my nails into it, I pulled, hard. "Thank the Higher Powers for small favors." A small smile on my face, I let out a relieved sigh. It'd be a nicer favor if there wasn't a padlock on the cage door, but I could move around now, well, sort of, so I'd take what I could get.

The digi-destined had better not take long to get here.

* * *

**Chapter Four : End**


	5. To The Rescue!

**Chapter Five: To The Rescue!**

So, it's been three days. Yep, count them; one, two, **three** days since I'd woken up. Meaning that it had been a grand total of **five** days since the Pagumon had shown up. That would be five days without any form of sustenance, five days of little to no sleep, five flipping days of being stuck in a cage, and five **very long** days of **not being able to URINATE**. The lack of food and water helped in that last bit, but it still hurt and it still sucked.

Also, instead of coming 'check on us' like they said, not a single one of them even came by the waterfall. Not a Pagumon, not a Gazemon. **No one**. So you can imagine how I felt when one did show back up, carrying a little white digimon bound in ropes. They threw him, not so gently, into a cage near my Koromon.

"Hey, small, stupid, and ugly!" The Gazemon looked over at me, annoyance in it's eyes.

"How'd you get untied?"

Cue eye roll, "You guys suck at tying knots. A baby could tie better knots than you." I had to bite back my laughter, because man, he was so easy. "Of course, you can come tie me up again... if you think you can."

He growled, storming over to the cage. Perfect. My hand shot through the bars, and I grasped his neck, squeezing as hard as I could. He gasped, clawing at my arm, but I didn't let go. Grabbing the rope around me, I wrapped it around him, securing his arms to his sides, pulling the ends of the ropes back hard, smashing him against the outside of the cage.

"I see you don't have the key, so you better listen because I will say this once and only **once**," Flinching, as I pulled the ropes righter, he nodded, "We won't be in here forever. Once the digi-destined realize you have their friend, they'll come for him and we'll be set free." I leaned close, whispering, "You better be long gone before then, because you and your lot have pushed me over the point of no return and when I am free, all of that anger is coming out on you. By the time I'm done, they won't even be able to find remnants of your **data**." To heighten the effect, I lowered the tone of my voice, laughing into his ear, "Do you you understand or must I give you an example of what I'll do?" Again, I pulled at the ropes, wrapping them around my hands. He was pressed so hard into the cage, the ropes so tight, that he started gasping for air, kicking his legs wildly.

But, he did nod... a lot, very quickly, so I let go of the ropes, then pulled them back into my cage, a bright, happy smile on my face. Gazemon's eyes were wide with fear, and with a speed I'd never seen before, he was out and long gone within seconds. Unable to stop myself, I began howling in laughter, tears building in my eyes. A good few of the Koromon looked intimidated as well, but mine was laughing right along with me. Those acting classes I took in high school turned out to be pretty useful after all.

Once we finally calmed down, I turned my attention to the newcomer, who was on the verge of bawling his eyes out, "Oh, no, don't cry, sweetheart. It'll be alright." I offered him a soft, kind smile. "What's your name?"

"T-Tokomon.." he hiccuped out, "H-How long have you guys b-been here?" Oh, this one's definitely not gonna make him feel any better.

But he asked... "Well... about five days now." Tears began flowing freely from his eyes, and it was all he could do to bite his lip to stop from crying aloud. "No, no. Come on. No crying. You're with the digi-destined, right?" My question surprised him, but he nodded. "Then you know they'll be looking for you! They're probably looking for you right now. It's just a matter of time before they find us, and as soon as we're free, and those Pagumon are gone, we'll be able to get something to eat!"

The Koromon all nodded in agreement, their stomachs rumbling loudly, all at the same time. It caused Tokomon to start laughing, his tears slowly stopping. "That's a good boy. No more tears, okay? You gotta be positive! That way, when your partner comes, they'll see just how strong and brave you are!"

Now I felt like a parent, or big brother at least, trying to cheer him, everyone, up. It made me feel a bit silly, but he stopped crying, and everyone looked to be in higher spirits. Even I felt better about the situation, despite y'know, feeling like utter crap physically.

"I have an idea!" That was my Koromon, who was practically bouncing in excitement, "Why don't we do something to pass the time? Y'know, something to keep us in a good mood until they find us?" A grin made it's way onto my face and I nodded in agreement, the other Koromon and Tokomon following en suite. "Hmm... I can't think of a game, but what about story telling? Or singing?" They all screamed 'singing' at the same time, scaring the hell out of me. "Awesome. I know the perfect song!"

Tokomon and I had no idea what was going on, so we just kind of sat there, listening.

_We are the Koromon, small but proud!_

_ Nothing can happen that'll keep us down!_

_ We eat and we play and we train all night,_

_ So we can digivolve and fight, fight, fight!_

Well that was a simple enough song to keep up with. A smile made it's way onto my face and I could feel happiness bubbling inside of me. As I started singing, all those things that were bothering me, hunger, thirst, nausea, all seemed to fade away. I looked over at Tokomon, giggling, "C'mon, it's fun!" He hesitated, but as soon as he joined, he started smiling and singing just as loudly as everyone else.

As the song went on, though, my mind started to wander, my voice softening, slowly, until it just stopped, my eyes cast downward at the bottom of the cage.

It was... strange. Feeling like I had friends again... No, knowing I had friends again. My mind was conflicted. I wanted to feel happy, ecstatic about it... but part of me told me they'd wind up hating me too. Even now, even though I'm here, forever away from those people that carved this into my head, it bothered me even now. I'd have to really try and work on that...

I sighed, looking back up, only half focused on everyone. I looked at them, all the Koromon... Tokomon... my partner... He was staring at me, worry filling his eyes. He'd noticed me space out again. Not wanting anyone else to catch onto my sudden drop in mood, I put on a smile, shaking my head at him as I began to sing again.

xxXxx

So the singing died off after a while, all of us just being too tired to continue, needing to rest our throats. The fact that we'd been able to sing for so long without having had water in nearly a week amazed me. Adrenaline was a wonderful thing. "Anyone else have an idea of something we could do?" Everyone thought about that for a few minutes, but all of us came up short. There wasn't much else we could do.

My anger flared up again, and I growled loudly. Carefully, I repositioned myself, pressing my back to the back bars of the cage, planting my feet on the front. I was in a squashed position, but it gave me just enough room to do what I intended. Hands grasping the bars on the side for leverage, I pushed, hard.

But it was like pushing against a brick wall. I wasn't as strong as I used to be. That meant I had to try something else. So I pushed myself as far back as I could go, pulled my knees to my chest, and kicked. The cage door rattled, the lock shaking. This one may just work.

So I pulled back again, kicking over and over, with as much strength as I could muster. "Your going to hurt yourself!" I looked to Tokomon, but continued. My health was the least of my worries right now. If we were stuck in here one more bloody night I was going to go crazy.

My legs were starting to quit on me though, so I had to give it one final push. Taking in a deep breath, I closed my eyes, clearing my mind. I focused, pushing all of my strength, my energy, into my legs. I could do this. I could do this. "**I CAN DO THIS!" **So with all I had put into my legs, I went for it. My feet hit the bars with such force, it shook the entire cage, and as soon as they landed, I kept pushing, the bars digging into my back, my knuckles going while.

_**CLANG**__._

I heard it. They heard it. We all heard it. So that either meant that I broke the lock, or possibly fucked something up to the point where I would never be able to escape and would have to live out the rest of my days like a dog in the pound.

Or apparently, I just broke the door. My eyes went wide, my mouth agape. The lock was still completely intact but the hinges of the door gave out, the door flying open. My mind blanked, I froze, and all the digimon were staring with wide eyes. I sure as can be was not expecting that to happen. Though it did make sense. That's how we broke my bedroom door at home on accident when I was twelve.

"Tokomon!" Oh, hey, look, a visitor. No, wait, not so much. "And all the Koromon and... did you just break that door?" I just kind of smiled, scooting out and standing up, with the help of the now broken cage. "Help me free everyone!"

No questions asked, I went for the cage with my Koromon -I really need a nickname for the guy-. The lock on his wasn't like mine. It was this rinky dink thing that was just a spike dropped into a hole. Guess they figured since Koromon didn't have hands, they wouldn't be able to undo it.

"Just what do you two think you're doing?" A nasty looking pair of Gazemon entered the cavern, looking mighty pissed off and itching for a fight.

"We're setting our friends free!"

"I don't think so, lizard boy! We're planning on giving all of them, plus those human brats, to King Etemon!" The leader laughed, "Unless you and that brat think they can stop us! You, go take care of the human, I got the lizard." The second Gazemon froze, a shiver going through him, as he leaned to his boss, whispering something. "He what? You big baby, get over there!" He hesitated, but shook off his fear, jumping over his friend to land near me.

Oh how I wanted to laugh. This was going to be so much fun. "So I see you stuck around." Cue stereotypical cat-style battle mode, also known as; walking in a circle, trying to intimidate one another. "I know I warned you."

"I ain't afraid of a human!" Your eyes tell a different story, though, my dear mutated rabbit. Cracking my knuckles, I laughed, then stopped walking. He looked confused, and in that moment, I tackled him. Little shit was stronger than he looked though, and as we rolled about, he actually managed to pin me. Just before he had the chance to attack, Agumon nailed him with a fireball, knocking him off of me.

But that gave the other time to tackle him. Returning the favor, I scrambled over, taking hold of the Gazemon's arm and jerking him off, causing him to land flat on the cave floor. After a quick punch in the face, I flipped him over and sat on him to keep him pinned. The other took notice and jumped at me, but Agumon deterred him with fireball, allowing me to grab him as well. I had my arms wrapped tightly enough around him that he wasn't going anywhere.

"Let them out!"

"Not so fast!" The one in my arms flung his head back, planting one hell of a hit on my face, my nose specifically. In shock and pain, I released him, immediately touching my face for signs of – oh yeah, there was blood. "Electric stun blast!" It didn't hurt nearly as bad as what Gatomon had done, but it was enough to knock me off his buddy.

"Theodore!" My Koromon yelled, his anger flowing off of him in waves. I turned my attention to him -big mistake-, as both Gazemon struck at the same time. My back hit the ground and I clenched my jaw, biting back any sound of pain. Agumon ran over, but they struck again, hitting us both. Bile built up in my throat, and I forced myself to roll over, getting on my hands and knees. One more attack, and that was it. I couldn't take it anymore. I screamed, tears rolling down my face. "That's **enough**!" My digivice started vibrating, the black aura shining out of it. "Koromon dark digivolve too-" A long, dark colored strip of... I guess it was data, circled Koromon, encasing him in a black, glowing light. The 'light' exploded from around him, and in place of my little pink Koromon was a damn frightening Agumon. "Daragumon."

His voice had deepened, taking on a more intimidating tone, bright blue eyes narrowed in anger as he snarled, showing razor sharp teeth. Unlike the Agumon near me, his skin was a dark gray, almost black color, the blue stripes contrasting drastically.

He took hold of the door of his cage and ripped it off, stepping out, never taking his eyes off the Gazemon, who were looking a bit more intimidated than they were before. "Spitfire!" A ball of blue fire shot from his mouth, hitting one of the Gazemon with enough force to knock it into the other. Daragumon ran to my side, helping me stand, "You gonna be alright?" Putting on my best smile, I nodded. "Good. I've got a plan, but I need you to hold them off for as long as possible. Can you do that?"

"I can try."

"Perfect."

He ran to Agumon, jerking him to the waterfall. I didn't know what he had planned, but I wasn't going to let the Gazemon mess it up! Quickly, I tackled the two as they stood up from Daragumon's attack, forcing them back to the ground. I pulled back my fist and nailed one in the cheek, but the second one bit me, and got away, raising his hands to attack. "Not happening." Grabbing the arm of the one I hit, I flung him into the other one, the two rolling into the wall. Didn't keep them down though. "Better hurry up you guys!"

"Electric stun blast!" Oh that wasn't going to fe- SON OF A CHEESE CRACKER! "How's that feel, brat?!" They were mad, no, they weren't mad, they were down right, 100% pissed-the-fuck-off. I jumped for them, but they kept their distance, striking me again. I wish I had something to throw, shit! Wait! Shoe!

Slipping my foot just a bit out of my shoe, I aimed, "HYA!" I kicked, the shoe flew, nailing one of them right in the forehead! "Yes!" The moment of joy didn't last, as the one still standing headbutted me in the stomach, shoving me to the ground. As he went to strike, I flipped our positions, but instead of holding down his arms like I normally would have, I had one hand wrapped around his fuzzy little neck. His eyes were wide with fear, and I grinned. "I told you~" I spoke in a low, sing-song voice, raising my fist.

"Agumon!" What the fu- Oh, about flipping time! "Wait, who are you!?"

Rolling my eyes, I punched the Gazemon in his nose, then got up, kicking him away from me, towards his friend. "Less talking, more helping, **please!?**" And down I went. My back his the ground, the breath knocked out of me. I couldn't move. This was it. This was how I was going to die; electrocuted to death by mutant bunnies with attitude problems.

Or maybe not. As I opened my eyes, I was just able to get a glimpse of the two Gazemon flying out of the cave, literally. Agumon digivolved... and saved my ass. My very tired, starving, blood and dirt covered, stupidly brave ass.

The fighting was over. Finally over. My first fight in the digital world, hell, my first fight ever, that wasn't in a video game, was finally over, and we won. "Alles ist gut." I smiled as I spoke those words, closing my eyes, and just breathing. Man, what I wouldn't give for a giant watermelon and some nice, cold, green tea.

Footsteps echoed in my ears, lots of them, and I could only guess that all of the other digi-destined had arrived. A little boy's cry of joy was heard, as was Tokomon's. Good, he found his partner.

"Let me help you up." I reopened my eyes, halfway at least, staring at the boy standing over me -the one who was partnered with Agumon-. I hesitated, but raised my arm, grabbing his hand. As I made my way back to my feet, I felt my muscles screaming, my bones popping. Everything in me yelled "NOPE", trying to shut down, but I couldn't. Not yet. "You took one heck of a beating." I had to use the wall for leverage, but I was up, mostly.

"He protected us from the Gazemon! He fought them while Agumon and Daragumon signaled you guys!" The leader Koromon spoke up, bouncing happily "He's our hero!"

That bile was coming back up, and nausea hit me like a sack of bricks, "Hero's.. not feelin' so great. 'Scuse me." As fast as I could, I painfully stumbled over to the edge of the cave, where the waterfall had opened like a door, and dropped to my knees. "You guys.. mind settin' 'em free?" The kids scrambled about, their partners assisting them in freeing all the Koromon.

Daragumon walked over to me, rubbing my back softly as I expelled the bile from my body. It burned, causing tears to trickle down my face. "Looks like we really are meant to be partners, huh?" Unable to speak, for fear of throwing up again, I just nodded, forcing a small smile. He nudged my cheek with his snout, "Are you gonna be alright?"

"Y-y-yeeah.. I j-just..." I paused, reaching out with my hands to catch some of the water from the waterfall, gulping it down, but not too quickly. "I j-just.. n-need a b-break..." Which would have to wait, of fucking course.

As the voice echoed throughout the area, bouncing off the walls of the cave, I snarled. "Hello hello~!" I knew, I just knew, that this wasn't going to end well. This guys voice was way too happy to not cause trouble. "You measly little digi-destined! You little brats done gone and messed up my beautiful plans!"

"Yeah, we did! And we'll do it again, you pathetic excuse for a digimon!" Daragumon helped me to my feet, holding onto me to keep me balanced. "And what's with the stupid accent, you Elvis reject?!"

"Keep quiet you little brat! Now I'm gonna have to punish y'all even worse! Let's see how you like my latest number," I really hated this guy, "It's called **Wreckin' the Whole Place**!" Something told me this wouldn't be a song I'd want to hear more than once.

From the ground rose large, black cables, dark energy running through them like electricity. Black orbs, the size of a motorcycle were flung our way, the energy crackling around them causing everyone to flinch. Daragumon helped me get away from the entrance, standing in front of me. I stood, wobbly, between the digi-destined, waiting. If we were gonna fight, then so be it.

Greymon stood in front of us, and all the other digimon jumped up as well, digivolving. Etemon played another chord, the music screeching in our ears. All of the digimon covered their ears, their digivolutions ineffective; even Greymon shrunk back down to his rookie form.

On his third strike, the cavern began to shake, dirt and pebbles falling from the ceiling. "Okay, yeah, time to go." With Daragumon at my side, we hurried, or tried to, deeper into the cavern.

"If only we could digivolve further; we could take out that stupid monkey!" It's a nice thought, but it wasn't happening, not today. As larger rocks began falling, they took the hint and caught up to us, running past. One guy stopped though, actually picking me up, and carrying me as he ran. The Koromon bounced along beside us, happy to be free, but just as concerned about the situation.

Which was to be expected seeing as we were in the back of the cave, which, guess what? Was a dead end! "This is where we take shelter when something bad happens to our village." Not a bad idea, really. It's always good to have a safe place to go. But seriously? Did they not think they'd need another bloody exit?! Oi, I needed a drink.

Wait, wait, I see something, a light. I see a bright light. Shit, was I dead? "Your tag!" Nope, not dead, they see it too. Agumon's human reached into his shirt, pulling out a golden tag. The light surrounding it pulsated, and in response, the back wall of the cave began to glow as well. A dark orange symbol, that looked a bit like a tribal drawing of the sun, was spread across the entire wall. The tag levitated out of his hand, the light around it continuing to pulsate. The symbol pulsated as well, and began to shrink, going from the seven by seven feet it was, to about an inch by an inch, centered on the wall.

"I.. I think I know what this is.." The now tiny symbol shot a beam of orange light at his tag, all of the light, save for the one around the tag and symbol, faded. "It's a crest!" Well look at that, they got their very first crest. Good on t- By the Higher Powers, the back of the cave was gone. Just, gone!

I could see grass, trees, mountains! Even better, I could **smell** water. "Thanks for helping me." I looked up to the guy, whose blue eyes stared back at me, "I really appreciate it." He nodded and without saying a word, let me down. I held onto his shoulder, and he helped me steady myself. "Daragumon and Koromon!" They all looked towards me, "Follow me!"

First though, I reached down, lifting my feet one at a time to remove the one shoe, and socks, taking my other shoe from Daragumon who was kind enough to grab it for me. Then I marched out, well, walked at an almost agonizingly slow pace, almost crying in joy when my bare feet touched the cool grass.

My nose had never led me wrong before, and I know it wasn't going to now. "Where are we going?" I just held up a hand to whoever spoke, continuing forward. It wasn't that far away, I could feel the air growing more humid, the smell stronger.

Thank the Powers that it was there! I managed to make it to the edge of the absolutely beautiful, amazing pond, and plop down in front of it. "And so we are saved." The Koromon all cheered and jumped into the -apparently shallow- water, cooling off and getting something to drink. I slide my legs back, laying on my stomach, and just dunking my entire head in the water. It was cool, refreshing, and got some of the dirt and blood off of me. Before I came up, I swallowed a good few gulps though.

Then I rolled onto my back, and sat up, staring at the digi-destined. "We've been in that cave for five days, and I just got the stuffing beat outta me. Just give us some time. We're exhausted."

"I guess so! Those Gazemon were vicious." Agumon's human plopped down next to me, "I know I could go for some grub." I shot him a 'seriously?' look, and he laughed, so I rolled my eyes at him.

The other kids followed our example, their digimon sitting beside them. "Oh... ah... My name's Theodore, by the way. The dark dino over there," I pointed to the water, where Daragumon was blowing bubbles at the Koromon with his nose, "Is my buddy Daragumon."

The first to speak was a red-haired girl, who had a bright smile plastered on her face, "My name's Sora, and this is Biyomon." The pink bird smiled, fluttering her feathers happily. "That's Tai and Agumon."

"Thanks again for all the help." I nodded to them, smiling as we shook hands -well, claws too, haha-. "You're definitely something else."

I'll be taking that as a compliment! Grinning, I teetered back and forth, happily, as they continued, "I'm Gabumon and this is my friend, Matt." Gabumon smiled at me, but Matt, who had been the one to help me out, just nodded. Not the friendly type, I see. Well, I'd fix that! "That's Matt's little brother, TK-"

"And this is Tokomon!" TK cut Gabumon off, a wide smile on his face. Tokomon, who was in his lap, hopped up and over to me, so I picked him up and hugged him gently, rubbing my cheek against his.

"Theodore and Daragumon helped keep us in good spirits while we were locked up. He helped me be brave!" As I placed Tokomon down, he climbed back into TK's lap, both of them smiling at me.

"That's Joe and Gomamon." I tilted my head at the two, looking them over. Gomamon was cute, and obviously a water type digimon. Joe... looked like a nerd, but a good nerd. The kind of cute nerd that always carried a ten ton schoolbag and tries to be prepared for every possible thing. The medical bag at his side confirmed that, and I stifled a laugh. "That's Mimi and Palmon."

Mimi made a face at me, obviously disgusted, "Eww! You look so dirty and nasty! How can you stand it?" Right then and there I knew I wouldn't be getting along with her. Stupid preppy, ultra-femme girly girls. Blagh.

"First off, because I'm a boy. We play rough, we get dirty." Or, most of us. Joe and the red haired kid didn't look the type. "And secondly, I look like this because I was protecting my friends." She opened her mouth and I knew what she was going to say. Thank goodness the red haired kid started talking because I would not have reacted nicely to her.

"I'm Izzy. This is my partner, Tentomon." He drifted off into thought after that, just going weirdly quiet. Geez. He's like how I was back home. I could get along well with him, yep, especially if we got to talking about computers!

Daragumon climbed back onto the grass, sitting next to me, leaning back on his arms, "Man, that felt good." He sighed contently, "So what'd I miss?

"Introductions."

He pouted, then shrugged, "I'll learn everyone's name eventually. I mean, since you're all digi-destined, it'd be kinda better if we all stuck together, right?" Man, my own partner was better at this stuff than I was. "Especially if you guys wanna defeat Etemon."

"And whatever follows in his footsteps." Izzy spoke up then, "They seem to have a system going. We defeated Devimon, and now Etemon's out to get us. It only makes sense that if we managed to defeat him, an even stronger digimon would appear. I would imagine that the cycle would repeat until we destroyed whoever was sending them after us."

"Seeing as Etemon has the ability to not only take away your power, but force you to de-digivolve, it's going to take a lot of power to destroy him, and it's better to be safe than sorry."

"Exactly."

We all just kind of looked at them, Izzy and Daragumon, surprised. Huh. Who would have guessed that my buddy would be such a logical thinker. "You do have a point." That would be Tai. "I don't have a problem with it. Anyone else?" A round of 'no's' and 'nope's' later and we were officially in. Sweet.

Things seem to be off to a pretty good start, as far as the actual "work" goes. I found a partner and met up with the digi-destined in a week! Considering the fact that Myotismon dropped a ten year old, with very little knowledge of the digital world, off in the middle of nowhere with no leads what-so-ever, I think I was doing pretty damn well. If his vampire butt wasn't satisfied with that then he could suck it -ha-, because I'd like to see someone do better.

"First thing's first though, we gotta bring all the Koromon home." Everyone nodded in agreement, and the Koromon all joined us on land, looking a lot better than they had before.

"We're pretty far away... it's at least a day's walk from here." I could guess; the mountain was freaking huge. "If we start now, we could get about half-way before dark, rest, then start up again in the morning." That didn't sound like a bad idea, well, so long as 'a days walk' was based off of a walk from morning to evening, and not morning to next morning. I couldn't handle that. I was already way past my limit and I knew as soon as I got the chance, I was going to be out, and they'd be lucky to wake me up the next morning.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Tai was up first, pumped full of energy, and one by one everyone else got up, meaning that I was the only one left on the ground.

They looked down at me, and I smiled nervously, "I can't feel my legs."

* * *

**Chapter Five : End**


	6. Too Stubborn To Quit

A/N; Alrighty guys, here's your two chapters! I won't be back for a couple weeks, and I'm not sure when I'll be able to post again once I return, so enjoy!

Wish me luck!

* * *

**Chapter Six: Too Stubborn To Quit**

Okay, so, honestly, I don't remember what happened, at all, after we started walking. I managed to make it like half a mile before I dropped, no warning. After my body, my mind, determined that we were no longer in any form of immediate danger, everything gave out at once, and my world went black.

I felt bad though. I mean, I didn't mean to pass out, I really didn't. But after all that had went down, after being deprived of food and water for so long, I just couldn't go anymore. My body needed to recover, and it knew I was too stubborn to stop, so the switch was flipped and I did a total shutdown.

Which meant that either they stopped and waited, or someone was carrying me. I really hoped it wasn't the second because then I'd feel so much guiltier. The last thing I wanted to do was be a burden to them right after we met.

Sigh.

I groaned, or at least I think I did. My mouth moved, I felt that, but as far as noise went? No idea. Slowly, the feeling started coming back; first in my hands, then feet, tingling up towards my torso. Everything felt groggy and heavy...

Did I die?

"Nope. You're alive, though we were worried for a while there." Who said that? I couldn't... think... where was I? Lifting my head, I rubbed at my eyes with one hand, realizing immediately, that my other was wrapped around someone. Their arms were wrapped around my legs, and from what I could gather, I was being carried, piggy back style. "You still look really tired. You can go back to sleep until we get to the village if you'd like. We'll be there in a little while."

It was a girl's voice... girl... village... Sora. Yeah, it was Sora. I was in the Digital World... with the digi-destined. "N-no.. I'm.. I'm awake.." It came out as a mumble, so I don't know if anyone heard me, but it didn't matter. I wrapped my arm back around the person carrying me, but kept my head up, my eyes half open. "Wha.. wha happen.."

"You passed out! Out of nowhere, you just stopped and before we knew it you were on the ground, unconscious. You pushed yourself too hard." I grinned, letting out a laugh as I rested my head on the carrier's back. "It's not funny, Theodore. You have to be more careful."

"I have to... protect... no matter how... I can't... afford to lose.." Screw complete thoughts, I wasn't even halfway awake yet, definitely not functioning properly yet. My stomach bubbled, muscles clenching. That would be the hunger kicking in, of course. "Someone talk to me.. keep me up.."

"Alright, ah... how old are you?"

Twenty-two... no... not now... I was.. "Just.. turned ten.." That works, I suppose. I mean, I had just turned twenty-two back home, and I was so little now... but bigger than TK, so I figured it was an appropriate age. "Right before.. I got here.."

"Ooo! Happy Birthday then! Did you have a party? With cake and balloons and presents?!"

"Nuh-uh... none of that... I spent my birthday at home... alone in my room." A sad truth. But I didn't have parties anymore. Who would I invite? "Cuddled with my dogs all day.." Half dead as I was, even I felt that mood drop. By the Powers, that was intense. "Nnn... stop.. stop for a minute.. I gotta... stand up.."

The one holding me squatted down and released my legs, but I held onto him in fear of falling over. I rubbed my eyes more, clearing up my vision enough to at least see what was in front of me. "I uhm... you guys.. stay. I gotta.. uhm.. I gotta... yeah.." Carefully, I let go of Matt, who had again been carrying me, and stumbled my way away from them. When I felt I was at a safe distance, I unzipped my shorts and finally, finally relieved myself.

It hurt so bad to hold that in, like, you have no idea. I'd be lucky to not develop a UTI because I held it in for so long. Geez.

When I finished, I dipped my hands in a little puddle of water to clean them off, and -making sure my shorts were zipped first-, went back to where everyone was waiting for me. "Okay.. I'm good. Let's go." I yawned, but started walking. I wanted to hurry up and get back to the Koromon village so I could eat and bathe and then probably go back to sleep.

The Koromon were all in front of us, leading the way. We were going at a pretty good pace, honestly. If I'd really been out since we started walking yesterday... judging by the position of the sun... we should be getting pretty close.

"What's that?" Joe, being mister observant, apparently noticed something we hadn't. "Looks like someone tried carving something onto the tree." Woah, wait, what?

"Move." I scrambled over, new found energy building inside of me. "I did that!" I grinned wide, bouncing in happiness. "The other day, I went for a walk and marked the trees so I could find my way back." I can't believe we came across this! "The next one should be close. I marked them so I could always see the next one..."

"Over there!" Looking to the right, where Tai pointed, I spotted it, walking over. "Wait, how do we know these are leading us to the village and not away?"

Blushing a bit in embarrassment, I smiled, pointing to some bushes between the first two trees that were kind of... broken. "I uhm.. kinda slipped and fell into the bushes." That caused a round of laughter, but I just grinned and kept on walking, Daragumon at my side, snickering as well. "Besides, I can smell the river!"

I didn't bother to wait for them, and took off running. Freedom! Sweet, beautiful freedom! And food! So much delicious digimon food! Wahoo!

As soon as I broke through the tree line, I yelled, excited, "We made it!" and proceeded to dive head first into the soft grass, tumbling and landing on my back. Daragumon followed my example, but managed to land on me instead. "Gah! Geez, was that really necessary?" He laughed, getting off and helping me back up. "Welcome home, Koromon!" They all bounced around happily, joyous yells filling the air.

They were home, and they were safe. The Pagumon had cleared out, probably right after the digi-destined headed off to find us, meaning that the Gazemon were gone as well. It was quiet, it was peaceful, and the Powers permitting, it would stay that way, just for a little while.

"You're all welcome to stay the night! That way, you can get refreshed and cleaned up before continuing your journey." Chief Koromon nodded, grinning, "We'll start gathering food and supplies, since I'm sure the Pagumon used all of what we had."

"Alright, then we'll help too!" Tai and myself spoke at the same time, then grinned and high-fived. Yeah!

"Sounds good to me. Palmon, Mimi, Biyomon, and myself will go look for fruit and berries." Mimi actually agreed, which was good. They could use her hat as a basket!

"Awesome. Matt and I will take Agumon and Gabumon to gather firewood," Since they're the 'leaders', I guess. "Joe, you, Gomamon, Izzy, and Tentomon, see if the Koromon need help getting anything together."

"Wait, what about me and Theodore?" TK hugged Tokomon to him, looking up at Tai and Matt expectantly, "What do we get to do?"

"Just go play or something. You're both too little to work." At that, my jaw dropped, and I was left speechless. Too little? Too **little**!? Dude, I fought off two Gazemon by myself, and did a damn good job! How dare he call me too little! I'm a twenty-two year old man... stuck in a kids body, but that's not the point! "Just stay in the village."

They'd already left before I could voice my frustrations, but Daragumon could feel it, and I know TK and Tokomon could see it. "Hmph. I'm not too little. I could have helped too." TK seemed to agree with my thoughts.

Idea. "Y'know what, TK?" He looked at me and I grinned, "We're gonna help whether they want us to or not. Just follow my lead." Grinning, he nodded. "First, we're gonna-" I whispered into his ear, and Daragumon and Tokomon listened intently. I sure as hell wasn't about to sit around and do nothing. I was almost twice as old as all of them; they can't boss me around. Hmph. We were going to help, just in our own way. It was a good chance to try out my fish catching skills anyhow.

We nodded and proceeded to split up, heading into the middle of the village. The only two we'd have to worry about were Izzy and Joe, but they'd be easy enough to avoid. Tokomon sneaked off, and Daragumon headed in the opposite direction. Perfect. TK and I went into the main building, which was, thankfully, empty. "Alright, I remember there being a storage room on this floor. We need buckets. Or, something like a bucket."

"Got it!" We split up, and I went down the closest hallway too me. It was pretty dark, so I had a hand on the wall to my right to make sure I wouldn't run into something. It shouldn't be too hard to find a bucket or something, I mean, I'm sure they used something big to carry larger supplies in. They could pull it along with a rope or something. I have no idea, but it was at least worth a s- "GAH!" And so I hit the floor, after crashing into a pile of who knows what. All I knew was that all of it was hard, and all of it hurt. Geez.

"Are you okay?" TK came running down the hall, a torch in one hand, some rope in the other.

"I tripped." The torch lit up the area though, so I was able to see exactly what I'd ran into. "Well look at that." No buckets, but hey, this stuff would work just as well. "I think we're in business, TK."

* * *

**Chapter Six : End**


	7. We Were Only Helping!

Chapter Seven: We Were Only Helping!

We met up with Tokomon and Daragumon at the river, where the water was about two feet deep, maybe a little less. "Okay, so what do we have.." Tokomon had managed to find a bundle of, well, it looked like yarn, but felt like rope? I have no idea what it was, but it would work. Daragumon had actually found two buckets, lucky dinosaur, and TK and myself managed to find about three feet of rope and a crate! "Perfect!"

"But what do we do with this stuff?"

"Well, we'll tie the rope to the crate, here," Sticking the rope between the top board and one beneath it, I tied it in a tight slip knot, so it would be, hopefully, strong enough to pull it. "So we can put the fish in here to bring back. Uhm... hm... we can gather fruit too, berries and stuff, and use the buckets to wash them off and carry them back."

"And we'll use the string to make fishing poles!... But we don't have any hooks."

"Do you have like a keyring on you? Or something similar that you don't need?" Thinking for a minute, he nodded, taking off his backpack.

He opened it up, digging around, tongue sticking out in concentrat- hey I do that too. Cute. "Here!" He held up a handful of... bobby pins? "Mimi asked me to hold them, but I'm sure she won't mind if we use a few" S-w-e-e-t~! "And we can use these for bait." As he lifted a bag of miniature gummy worms, I giggled, grinning.

"Sounds like a plan. Okay, so Daragumon, would you and Tokomon look around for berries and stuff? TK and I will handle the fishing." They agreed, and Daragumon picked up both buckets as they headed off, following the river opposite the direction of the waterfall.

I sat down and TK sat next to me, handing me the pins. "So we're just gonna bend them to look like hooks, right?"

"Yep, but on both sides. That way, we can tie the string around one side, and use the other to fish."

"Okay! We'll each do one, so we can both try. But what happens if they don't work?"

"Don't worry, Teeks, there's more than one way to catch a fish." Even if it's on accident. My brother learned that one when a fish decided to latch into his toes. Ah, what a fun day that was. He wound up falling into the bayou; came out looking like the swamp monster.

TK smiled, laughing, "Teeks?" Oh, woops. Well, I'd said it, so I guess I'll keep with it. Besides, it was a cute nickname, and he was a cute kid, so it fit.

Nodding, I started bending the pin in my hand -which was a bit harder than I'd have hoped-, trying to turn it into a hook without accidentally snapping it in two. "When I think someone's really cool, I like to give 'em a nickname. I know I haven't known you for long, but I just have a feeling that we're gonna be great friends."

"TK actually is a nickname. My real name's Takeru. But I like Teeks. It can be a special nickname, that only you call me, but only if I can give you a nickname too."

"Sounds like a plan! What do you have in mind?" He tapped his chin, thinking. I gotta admit, other than Theo, it was pretty hard to give me a name-based nickname. There weren't many different things you could do with my name. I could think of at least ten for Takeru alone.

"Hmm... Theodore... Theo...dore... TD...TD!" His face lit up happily, "Teddy! I'll call you Teddy!"

I wanted to just scoop him up and hug him forever, he was so damn cute. I wish he was my little brother. Man, I'd spoil him rotten. "Hehe, I'm a Teddy-bear." Giggles erupted from us both, and we high-fived. "Got it!" Granted, it was nowhere near perfect, but it looked kind of like a hook, and the fish wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

"Mine broke." TK pouted, but I patted him on the shoulder, smiling.

"We'll use this one to make you a line, okay? I wanna try something while you're line fishing." Taking the string, I slipped it through the bend part at the top and tied it extra tight, tugging on it to make sure it was sturdy. "Instead of using a stick though, because it could break, you can hold the other end. It'll make it easier to pull up the fish."

"Sounds good to me. What're you gonna do though?"

"Have you ever seen a bear catching fish on TV?" He nodded, "Like that, but with my hands instead of my mouth."

Giggling, he baited his line, tossing it into the water, "Just be careful."

Pfft, this was gonna be cake. I took off my jacket and put my digivice and tag inside of it, dropping my shoes and socks on top. I contemplated taking off my shorts, since they'd probably get really wet... but I didn't. There was already a chance TK would notice, I didn't need to double it.

So, I got about ten feet away from where TK had his line, and carefully got into the river. It was warm, thanks to the sun, but the rocks were slippery. I had to try and dig my feet in to stabilize myself. Alright. I was set and prepared, and just had to wait. There weren't too many fish coming through, which was understandable considering the time of day, but the ones that did were a decent enough size to make up for it.

Just keep your eye on the water... stay perfectly still... Eye on the fish... eye on the fish... eye on the- GO. With the swiftness of a cat -half dead cat maybe-, I went for it. Didn't go so well. My feet slipped out from under me as I lunged forward, and I went face first into the river. Managed to avoid face planting the rocks though.

I shot up, clawing at the bank, eyes wide, breathing heavily... out of my.. nose... "There's a fish in your mouth!"

WHAT!? I spit it out, making a horribly disgusted face,wiping off my tongue. "Oh man. Gross. So gross. Ew. Ewwww!" I dunked my face back in the water, taking in a mouthful, spitting it out once I popped back up. "I almost swallowed a fish!" TK couldn't talk, actually, I don't think he could breath. He was hunched over, hands holding his stomach as he laughed so hard he started to cry. "Don't laugh at my paaaaaain." I flopped my torso onto the bank, whining, but it just made him laugh harder.

I huffed, pouting, and shot a glare at the fish, which was laying in front of me. In response, it spit a stream of water at my face. What the absolute hell!?

Climbing out of the water, I picked the fish up by it's tail, walked over to the crate, and grabbed the rope, pulling the crate to the river. Then I dropped the fish into the crate, "Stay! Bad fish!" Daragumon and Tokomon walked up at that moment, two full buckets of fruit, and paused, looking from me, soaking wet and pouting, to TK who was laughing his butt off, and back again.

"Do we wanna know?" Daragumon sat down the buckets near the crate, and Tokomon hopped over to TK, giggling as well. "Okay, I wanna know. What happened?"

"I caught a fish with my moooooouuuth." He gave me a weird look, laughed, and patted my arm. "It was gross!"

"It was funny!" TK had calmed down enough now to talk, but his face was red and you could see he was biting back giggles. I stuck my tongue out at him, plopping down on my butt. "Lookie, I caught some too." He held up not one, not two, but **three** fish. I just stared, blinking. "They really like my gummy worms." The biggest grin was on his face, he was so proud.

So I smiled, "You're a natural, Teeks." Nodding happily, he baited his line again and tossed it out. Looking at our supplies, I made a face, thinking. "I think it'd be better if we put the fish in the buckets and the fruit in the box... cause if we leave the fish like that, they'll die and start to smell really bad."

"That's actually a good idea." And one we probably should have thought of before. Daragumon poured the fruits out onto the grass, and I couldn't help but stare at them. Spotted fruit, striped fruit, fruit shaped like squares. The digital world was weird as hell. "Here you go." Daragumon handed TK a bucket, filled about halfway with water, "And for you." Then handed me one as well, where I dropped my one fish in.

One measly fish. Bah. I had to do better than that. Determined, I slid back into the water, walking to the middle and grounding myself. Daragumon sat down by my bucket, watching me with a smirk on his face, TK and Tokomon smiling, trying to not giggle. I was not going to fail again!

xxXxx

"Don't. Say. Anything." Daragumon whistled, speeding up as he walked in front of us, pulling along the crate of fruit, Tokomon giggling as he rode on top. TK and I each had a bucket in our arms, though mine was considerably lighter than his. I had managed to catch six fish, which to me, wasn't that bad... unless you looked at TK's bucket full. I don't know what it was about gummy worms, but those fish went absolutely crazy over them. The kid caught fish after fish while I wound up almost drifting downstream. Yeah, I'd tripped and went into a deep spot, and there I went. Daragumon saved me by using TK's line, thankfully. Talk about embarrassing.

"You can have some of my fish if you want. To make it more even."

So sweet, goodness. "Nah, it's alright. You keep those fish. Show Matt how awesome you are." Being the age he is, and seeing how Matt treats him like a little kid, despite the fact that, uh, he's on this adventure too, it'll be good for him to show Matt that he's good at helping. Fishing's a great skill to have just in general, too. So this way, even if we didn't listen, we not only got food for everyone, we did it on our own so it shows we're helpful and useful!

Which I should have guessed would not be what they thought when we arrived back at the village as evening approached. I knew it before we even got close; I could feel the frustration. We were in trouble. "Teeks," he looked at me, "This isn't going to go how we hoped it would. Someone is so not happy with us right now." If I had to take a wild guess, I'd say Matt.

A shiver went up my spine, but I took a deep breath and stood tall, holding my bucket in one hand and my shoes in the other. I seriously did not want to get yelled at, but I was more than ready to argue back.

They were waiting for us, Matt, just as I'd guessed and... -Tai?!-. They both looked furious.. Matt I could sort of understand, but why in the world would Tai be upset?

"Where were you two? We told you to stay here!" Matt starts it, of course. "No one's seen you for hours. What in the world were you thinking, just running off like that?!"

"What if the Gazemon were still around? Or Etemon? You two would have been in serious danger!" Uh, even with you guys, if Etemon were around, we would have **still** been in serious danger, seeing as your digimon are- "Whose idea was this?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw TK go to move his hand, but there was no way he was taking the blame. "It was my idea." Hello too much attention on me at once. "I wasn't about to just sit around and do nothing while everyone else worked. I convinced TK to come with me." I huffed, "Besides, look at all the stuff we got." Daragumon pointed to the fruit, and TK and I motioned to our buckets.

"That's not the point." Not the point? Not the bloody point?! "You were told to stay here, in the village, and that's what you should have done." I narrowed my eyes at Tai, biting down on my cheek. This was ridiculous.

"You should have known better, TK! Tokomon's still in training and he," Matt pointed to Daragumon, "Only just digivolved to rookie. There's no way you would have been able to protect yourself!" TK was getting mad, I could feel it, but it was nowhere near what I was feeling, "And you shouldn't have convinced him to go with you! If you want to get yourself killed, don't get my brother involved!"

My fists were clenched, I could feel myself starting to shake, and it felt like it was getting hard to breath. This was a mixture of an anxiety attack and serious rage buildup, and it would not be pretty.

Taking in a deep breath, I looked up at the two, not bothering to hide anything I was feeling, "Why the hell are you going off on us like this?! All we were trying to do was help, to show you that we could be useful, no matter how small or young we are!" Tai opened his mouth to speak, but that was not happening, "No! You had your turns now it's mine so keep quiet! We didn't do anything bad or wrong, and we weren't even that far away. We were fishing at the river, about two minutes away, while our digimon gathered fruit. The only "bad" thing that happened was me getting soaked."

I turned to Matt, "I know TK is your brother but guess what, hot-shot, he's a digi-destined too! He's on this adventure, stuck in this world, just like the rest of us, and to be perfectly honest, it's the best time to let him be independent, to learn, because big brother sure won't be there to protect him forever and if all you do is coddle him, then you're going to push him away!"

And now Tai, "You- I don't even know why you're mad! TK's your friend, yeah, but you have absolutely no reason to go off on him, and I don't understand why you went off on me! We aren't babies. We aren't weak, We don't **need** protecting! And we sure don't need to be berated for doing what we thought was the right thing to do!"

I was breathing heavily at this point, the anxiety beginning to overpower the anger. "We ju-"

"No!" Was I crying now too? Not part of the plan, but neither was the shaking and that was happening as well. "You know what-! Just.. ugh! Screw this. I'm **done.**" They were both in a stunned silence, no idea what to do or say. They obviously hadn't been expecting any type of reaction other than apologies and compliance.

I was done though. They could fight Etemon and Myotismon and the Dark Masters by themselves. If all they were going to do was treat me like a little kid, then I was better off doing Myotismon's dirty work my own way.

I threw down the bucket I had, the water and fish spilling out onto the grass, as I ran, past them, all the way to the forest where I had marked the trees. There were some low branches, and I grabbed on, pushing myself up. If there was one thing I was grateful for about this body was I was small enough to climb trees again without slipping. Mostly.

My foot slipped, once, and I figured that branch was a good place to stop. I was at least ten feet off the ground, and for the most part out of site, so I wouldn't have to worry about someone finding me.

What I did may have been a bit of an overreaction, but I didn't care. Neither of them had any right to be mad at us, and definitely didn't have the right to **yell** at us. I hated being yelled at. It doesn't get the point across, it doesn't help anything. All it does is make people angry and upset.

The branch was pretty wide, allowing me to sit comfortably, so I pulled my knees up to my chest and silently cried as I watched the sun setting.

**-Tai-**

Oh man, I didn't mean for that to go down that way. We were worried, that's all. They're just kids... we're all just kids, but it's different! We're bigger and older and have more experience, so it's our job to keep them safe, to get them home in one piece.

I wasn't mad at them, not really, not like Matt. Matt was furious, but I think he was more angry at Theodore than TK. He doesn't know him, so he doesn't trust him. Heck, I'm sure he still doesn't trust some of us. I can tell Theodore's a good kid though. I don't know how, but I just can. He just... he's sad, and lonely, even if he won't say anything, I can see it. I feel like I should look after him, y'know? Since he doesn't have anyone else.

"You yelled at them, huh?" I sighed, nodding, "Not really the best way to talk to someone, y'know, even if you were worried." She was right. She was always right. "I can tell you just want to keep them safe, but they are digi-destined, and they're here, same as us. They may be younger than us, but we have to give them a chance to make their own decisions."

"Theodore said the same thing, sort of." I looked over to her, hesitant, but... "Do you think I should go talk to him? Matt and I have already talked to TK and made up, but Theodore ran off... he was really, really upset, Sora. I think we scared him."

She frowned, turning her attention to the sky, "You might have, Tai. We don't know much about him, about where he's from, or who he is. For all we know, he could have lived happily with a great family, maybe even a brother or sister, but he also could have been living with people who hurt him." Did she mean he... "From how he reacted... I wouldn't think it was good situation." I never would have even thought of that.. Now I really feel like a jerk. "Go talk to him, just, be patient, gentle."

After that she patted me on the shoulder, and went back inside the main house. Everyone had started eating already, the Koromon practically starving... thinking about it, I don't think Theodore's eaten since we got back... actually, I don't think he's eaten since they first got locked up.

That gives me an idea.

* * *

**Chapter Seven : End**


End file.
